On the road to made-to-measure surface treatment

 

The aims of modern production technology are closely connected with the terms "flexibility", "cost reduction" and "protection of resources". Production process must not only be efficient but also logical. Logical in a way that ensures the process parameters and thus results are infinitely repeatable. The demands put on the materials used in industry today is greater than ever before, and Rösler increasingly work with engineers at the design stage of a product, to ensure that the correct vibratory or blasting process develops alongside it.

On the road to made-to-measure surface treatment

The aims of modern production technology are closely connected with the terms "flexibility", "cost reduction" and "protection of resources".
Production process must not only be efficient but also logical.  Logical in a way that ensures the process parameters and thus results are infinitely repeatable.  The demands put on the materials used in industry today is greater than ever before, and Rösler increasingly work with engineers at the design stage of a product, to ensure that the correct vibratory or blasting process develops alongside it.
The road to made-to-measure surface treatment leads to machines which are adjusted to the production process so exactly, that their treatment result produces a hundred per cent reproducible quality, with a maximum of economic efficiency. In order to coordinate the right method, some preparatory work is required. Manufacturers like Rösler act empirically. "The important thing in surface technology is the selection and correct assessment of all parameters of influence", explains Stephan Rösler, executive manager of Rösler Oberflächentechnik GmbH in Untermerzbach/Germany. Only with such a basis, can the optimal solution be developed. Standard machines and –methods could possibly be used less in favour of the highly developed production process.

Qualified Database
The manufacturer of vibratory finishing- and blasting technique puts each of his "made-to-measure" processes into databases under customer name, and production requirements. The data is gained by carrying out sample treatment in a test lab. This is also decisive for determining the type of treatment to be offered in terms of quality and costs.

Synergetic effects are of use
Sometimes surprising synergetic effects occur between vibratory finishing- and blasting technological treatment.  This being the case of a machine combination which was specially-made as an island-solution for a cast iron producer
(photo 1).

The machine concept consists of a tumble belt blasting machine and a linear-continuous working vibratory machine which are connected by a common loading device (lifting-/tilting device). Workpieces of different size and geometry can be treated with a  choice of part-on-part or together. The interlocking machine concept saves expensive production space, offers shorter production times, and makes it possible that only one person operates both machines.The strength of innovation, which is behind such a development, is based on the complete process-technological Know-How, connected with the possibility to be able to access all elements of the system directly.
Therefore all components of Rösler Oberflächentechnik are home-produced, which is of benefit to the development spectrum lead time, and increases the flexibility to respond to customers changing requirements before, during and after build.

High-capacity blasting with robot support

The latest example is the Roboblaster (RROB), a high-capacity blast wheel blasting machine with robo support which the company exhibited on the Hanover Fair this year (photo 2).
With this new blasting machine type Rösler offers an efficient automation solution for demanding blasting tasks which have to be executed with the highest flexibility and enconomic efficiency. "Highly developed robo systems have their own place in the modern production shop. With the Roboblaster we use the possibility of direct integration of the blasting technique system in the full-automatical production process, or also island-solution, such as casting cells", explains Frank Möller, head of blasting technology department at Rösler. 

A six-axled cranked-arm robo takes on the complete handling at the RROB. From workpiece loading over the treatment in the blasting chamber, up to the handing over to the next production step.  Due to the extraordinary mobility of the robo-arm, optimal, and even blasting results, together with short blast times are possible with complex workpieces.

Productive with four blast wheels
At the heart of the Roboblaster are four high-capacity blast wheels which are especially important for the extraordinary efficiency and economy of the machine, as they realise the shortest treatment cycles. The space-saving, process-reliable machine is suitable for deburring, surface finshing or shot peening of cast- and iron parts, sensitive to impact (photo 3)  or small- or medium-sized (max. 350 x 350 x 700 mm) forged parts (e.g. crankshafts) and it is finely adjusted and optimized exactly to the requirements of the user. Two further blasting machine lines which are distinguished by special intensity and high efficiency, correspond to the users´ request for individual solutions, assuring an optimum of capacity and reproducibility of the treatment result.

 

Shot peening in a drum
With the Drum Blasting Machine RTC, the surface specialist has completed its blasting machine programme for batch processing. The machine (photo 4) was designed among other things for the shot peening of disk springs with a diameter of between 8 and 100 mm and a thickness of between 0,3 and 2,7 mm. It is also suitable for basic descaling and deflashing. The RTC is the ideal solution for an economical and process-reliable treatment of small or medium sized workpieces which can neither be blasted in a tumble belt system, nor in other continuous-working belt systems or in small baskets, as they are too small, too flat or too light or their quantity exceeds the machine´s capacity. 

Part entanglement impossible
For treatment the workpieces run in a perforated drum made which special shape and machining making entanglement impossible. Towards the outside the drum wall is shaped like a worm-gear to form a discharging chute and inlet funnel. The blasting system consists of a high-capacity  blast wheel (H42) with six blast wheel blades, which is directly driven and strategically positioned at the rear wall of the blasting chamber. The workpieces are constantly agitated, completely covered by the blast pattern providing a reproducible uniform peen finish.

Pressure blasting in continuous working

Also the new pressure blasting machine is  a solution for special blasting tasks. Especially in the open-air blasting section and in connection with high power blasting cabinets, pressure blasting is a concept. With the roller conveyor blasting machine RRB 2,5/2,5 (photo 5) Rösler introduces an automated pressure blasting machine, in which profiles, rails, bars, tubes, cracks or flat sheets can be cleaned continuously in a flow-through principle, and roughened for further coating. Even profiles with thin-walls can be treated in this machine with high efficiency, without form modification.  The special high blasting capacity results from a constructively dependent longer accelaration way. Therefore particle outflow velocities of up to 250 m/s occur. Due to this and further details, such as mobility and ability to adjust the four blasting nozzles, the cleaning capacity is up to five times highter than with open-air blasting.

Precision work at vibratory finishing
Process-reliability and economic efficiency are of immediate importance at the PL-controlled centrifugal force machine (photo 6) of the generation  Profi-Line of Rösler. Centrifugal force machines can be integrated in every automatic production process without any problems. By using workpiece-related treatment separation programmes, and PLC control, the complete machine management can be combined to reliably give a reproducible treatment that meets the high quality standards of the car industry.  "With our 2-batch-system we succeeded in increasing the productivity of centrifugal force machines by up to 100 per cent", notes Rüdiger Böhm, head of vibratory technology department of Rösler. Numerous special details identify the technical superiority of this high-capacity system.

Another machine in the range also giving Rösler the technical edge is a linear-continuous-working machine, in which workpieces up to a diagonal size of 600 mm and a weight up to 50 kg can be treated economically and safely (photo 7). This machine development, replaces in some cases, the manually operated bowl vibrator, previously the standard treatment for large workpieces.
In almost every operating field, Rösler Oberflächentechnik is able to offer a special method, and has been working with, and developing processes and machines for the world"s leading companies for many years. The home-production of all components and the exact combination between process technology, test labs and engineering is the basis for process-reliability of systems, which uses all possible synergetic capacities.

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