How to clean cast iron or light metal castings with deep holes quickly, economically and efficiently has always been a headache for many automobile and other vehicle parts manufacturers. Under the pressure of production capacity, how to thoroughly clean the inner cavity of cylinder block and cylinder head and maintain the production speed with economic benefits is also perplexing the foundry enterprises of engine cylinder block and cylinder head. Due to the diversity of products, workpieces with different sizes, weights, different numbers and shapes of cavities and hard to reach internal “blind channels” make cleaning difficult. In the past, most foundries used the squirrel cage shot blasting machine to clean the engine cylinder block and cylinder head.
The system is suitable for the production of a single product, but for cleaning different shapes and sizes of workpieces, it is necessary to replace the corresponding tooling every time, resulting in waste of time and limited production capacity. Due to the technical bottleneck, the robot cleaning system manufactured by some domestic shot blasting machine suppliers can not overcome the control of shot blasting form and strength, resulting in the surface damage of some precision and fragile workpieces due to excessive impact force. In addition, the airtightness of the shot blasting chamber and the treatment of sand and gravel from sand cleaning are still unsolved by domestic equipment manufacturers.
As a global surface treatment expert, wilberlet (Group) is well aware of the needs of customers. Its classic mechanical hand shot blasting system is specially developed and constructed for the manufacturers of engine cylinder block and cylinder head, and is highly praised and favored by customers. One of its characteristics is that it has high production capacity, minimum need for tooling replacement, strong versatility, and can handle up to different sizes and shapes of workpieces, including cylinder block, cylinder head, large crankshaft, gearbox housing, etc. In order to meet the special requirements and process specifications of different customers, each manipulator shot blasting system is customized, and full research, discussion, and simulation test are conducted before design to ensure zero error consistent with customer expectations.
Through thorough communication with customers, confirm various parameter values and process standards, including workpiece type, size, weight, parts to be cleaned, how to enter the shot blasting chamber, which shot blasting method is the most ideal, how to combine with the existing production line of customers, and so on, and carry out the machine design. In addition, issues such as electrical selection, PLC program-controlled system, hardware equipment, maintenance procedures, power requirements, site installation space, local environmental protection standards, operator safety, etc. will be the factors to be considered in the design. Working principle wilberlet (Group) manipulator shot blasting machine consists of two parts, one is the workpiece feeding and discharging system, the other is the shot blasting chamber system. These two independent systems can ensure the loading and unloading of other batches of workpieces at the same time of shot blasting, so as to achieve continuous and high-speed production.
The workpiece is placed on a feeding roller table and fed into the shot blasting chamber. With forward stop positioning hydraulic positioning and pneumatic centering device to ensure the correct clamping and positioning of each workpiece. The casting is lifted up and sent to the gripper of the manipulator. The hydraulic control claw holds the parts and rotates under the control of PLC program to finish shot blasting and cleaning. After shot blasting, the casting is caught by the material claw on the other side and sent to the discharge roller table and out of the shot blasting chamber. The patented head is the core of the shot blasting machine. The number, power and position of the turbine are specially designed and verified by the simulation test of the technical center. For manipulator type shot blasting equipment, PLC system control unit monitors many links in the whole production process to ensure that it meets the specific production requirements and process specifications. The closed-circuit control can feed back the monitoring data synchronously, ensure that every action of the machine is accurate and smooth, and can achieve high repeatability production. A touch screen with friendly interface can realize control function, program modification, system monitoring, error diagnosis and report.
In the shot blasting chamber, the manipulator claws hold the workpiece, according to the parameters set by the program, the electronic control abrasive chamber door is opened, and the abrasive is fed to the polishing head, and the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the polishing wheel casts the abrasive to the surface of the part. The preset PLC program controls the rotation mode of the claw to ensure that all surfaces and cavities of the parts are fully exposed to the shot flow and cleaned. PLC programming can also realize the continuous rotation or pause of the manipulator at a certain angle, so as to prolong the casting time in this area. The ability of concentrated, fixed-point and directional projection can ensure that all complex holes or channels inside the parts are cleaned up. The manipulator arm can rotate or stop 360 degrees clockwise or anticlockwise, which not only cleans the surface of the workpiece, but also cleans the residual abrasive particles in the inner hole. Then the workpiece is sent out of the shot blasting chamber for automatic unloading. Another advantage of willebrate’s equipment is low maintenance requirements. High wear resistant shot blasting chamber and head material extend the service life of spare parts, thus reducing maintenance costs and machine downtime due to maintenance.