With a new shot-blast machine, one of the largest foundries in Türkiye has expanded its capacity for de-sanding and cleaning engine blocks. A significant factor in the decision to install the RMBS 1-6-400-30 shot-blast system from Rösler was the high degree of process automation. Compared with spinner hanger machines, the RMBS system offers not only shorter cycle times but also requires less personnel.

Among other products, the foundry supplies grey and nodular cast iron engine blocks used in commercial vehicles and ships. The raw castings have dimensions up to 900 x 330 x 140 mm and weigh up to 237 kg.

The Rösler RMBS 1-6-400-30 shot-blast machine, specially adapted to customer requirements, allows the fully automatic simultaneous blast cleaning of one large or several smaller engine blocks within short cycle times. To this end, the machine is equipped with a specially engineered gripper-manipulator. After a robot has precisely positioned an engine block in the blast chamber, it is picked up and held firmly by the gripper. Once the blast chamber door closes, the blast program, tailored to specific work pieces, starts.

The gripper rotates the workpiece through the blast media stream. To increase the exposure of certain surface areas of the engine block to the blast media, users can slow or interrupt the rotation for a pre-defined time. For the simultaneously processing of several smaller engine blocks, these are mounted to a special work piece fixture. The entire fixture is then picked up by the gripper and rotated through the blast media stream.

According to Rösler, the resulting cycle time savings are such that the de-sanding and surface cleaning operation can be combined into a single process.

More information www.rosler.com