Guyson Corporation has introduced a robotic blast system that is designed and specially adapted for glass bead peening in NADCAP-compliant manufacturing and overhaul operations that must perform the surface enhancement process according to AMS 2432 peening specifications, including peening of stage one titanium fan blades.
The 7-axis RB-9 glass bead peening machine incorporates a Fanuc M-10iA or comparable robot as a blast gun manipulator and a servomotor drive that orients the machine’s turntable as a coordinated auxiliary axis of robotic motion. During a peening cycle, the robotic blast system constantly maintains the correct nozzle angle, offset and surface speed as it traces the contours of the part. The Fanuc robot design features a hollow wrist that allows the air and media hoses of the suction-blast gun as well as the air supply hose for the separate blow-off nozzle to be routed through the arm of the robotic nozzle manipulator.
A 36-inch diameter, 500-pound weight capacity rotary table is provided with T-slots and mounted on a powered transfer cart to facilitate installation and changing of component-holding fixtures. The 48 x 48 x 48-inch glass bead peening cabinet is also provided with a rubber-flapped and covered channel in the roof of the blasting enclosure and a 500-pound capacity roof-mounted jib crane to ease loading and unloading of heavy components.
In addition to a cyclone separator for removal of dust and fines, the peening shot reclamation system of the RB-9 glass bead peening machine includes a vibratory screen classifier to maintain strict control over shot sizing and a spiral separator to prevent non-spherical or fractured beads from being fed to the blast gun.
Digital electronic sensors, closed-loop computer controls and data acquisition software not only provide real-time monitoring and control of critical peening process parameters, such as blast pressure, glass bead supply and shot flow, they capture and automatically log all data that are required to document that the work was done as specified and verify the integrity of the surface enhancement process for each part peened.
The human-machine interface (HMI) of the RB-9 glass bead peening machine features a touch-screen panel that is designed to graphically represent each element of the system, clearly indicate its current status and display moment-to-moment data regarding its performance. The four-color HMI is more intuitive and easier to use than the control panels found on gantry-type CNC peening equipment that came on the scene more than twenty years ago.
Prospective users of automated or robotic blasting and shot peening equipment are encouraged to submit sample components for free laboratory testing and application engineering evaluation at the Guyson factory in northeasternNew YorkState.
