Shot Blasting, Peening Offer Aerospace Advantages
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Critical aerospace components require first-class surface treatment. From engines, fuselage, wings, and landing gear to seats, gears, propellers, blades, fasteners and tanks for fuel, water, and waste, Rösler has industry experience and expertise.
While mass finishing and shot blasting methods are equally useful to manufacturers of new components and in the overhaul and repair of existing components, shot peening – a particular type of shot blasting – is especially advantageous for aerospace work pieces thanks to its ability to provide surface finishing and create internal compressive stress for improved component life.
Shot Blasting Capabilities
Rösler’s shot blasting technology meets the strict surface finishing requirements predicated by tight tolerances for safety and longevity. This impact-based process propels small metal or mineral pellets onto a work surface at speeds of 200-800 feet per second.
Desired finishes including cleaning, texturing, removal of or preparation for coating, and peening can be pinpointed to specific areas of a given work piece as well as the entirety of large, structural components.
Shot blasting and shot peening processes, as shown close-up, are widely used in the aerospace industry and many others.
Specific aerospace examples include:
- Cleaning of compressor blades after forging or investment casting.
- Deburring of turbine vanes after laser drilling.
- Stripping of coatings and paint from radomes, engine components, and helicopter blades.
- Preparation of combustion chambers and OGV rings for plasma coating.
- Preparation of fan blades/casings made from composites for coating.
- Surface texturing of fan disks for a better grip of the fan blade root.
In general, shot blasting roughens a surface except for additively manufactured parts which have a proportionally rougher unprocessed surface. This type of work piece is smoothed by shot blasting.
Shot Peening Advantages
This schematic demonstrates the compressive stress induced by shot peening media.
By bombarding a work piece with a stream of special blast media, shot peening creates compressive stress on the surface. The resulting decrease in volume and compression extends the fatigue life of a component along with increasing its load bearing capabilities and producing higher wear resistance – all of which enable aerospace components to adhere to strict safety standards and promote longevity.
In relatively thin components, peen forming can be used to bend a work piece similar to the bending of the Almen strip. The shot blasting intensity is adjusted to control the degree to which bending occurs.
Examples of aerospace shot peening and peen forming uses include:
- Practically all air foils (peening).
- Compressor and turbine shafts (peening).
- Landing gear components (peening).
- Air frames and air frame panels (peening and peen forming).