Fully-automatic external and internal shot peening of landing gear
For the South of England branch of the French multinational SAFRAN, Straaltechniek International developed a fully-automatic shot peening machine. With this machine, both internal (‘deep hole’) and external shot peening of landing gear is done in just one process.
SAFRAN
Its 70,000 employees and a billion euro turnover make SAFRAN a global market leader in the field of aviation, defence and security. With numerous high-tech innovations, the company designs, develops, manufactures and maintains among other things aircraft landing gear; Airbus and Boeing belong to their clientele. Every 2.5 seconds, somewhere in the world an aircraft lands on SAFRAN landing gear.
Shot peening
Landing gear is a perfect example of products that are exposed to varying loads. So in order to guarantee a safe landing, components must have a long service life, be reliable and robust, but there is also an increasing demand for lightweight. Shot peening is of crucial importance for achieving this as well as for increasing resistance to crack formation and breakage.
‘The market is making ever greater demands on the customisation of surface treatment. The emphasis here lies on cost savings and high quality. As a specialist in this field, Straaltechniek International stands for innovative solutions with a high degree of automation and robotisation.’
(Marco Wildhagen, Sales Manager at Straaltechniek International)
Innovative design
The shot peening installation that has been developed is another marvel of technical ingenuity and innovation. Six controlled axles communicate with a dolly on which the landing gear is positioned, so that the shot peening process runs fully automatically. At the same time, the components are shot-peened both externally and ‘deep hole’.
With a special ‘rotary nozzle’, holes with a diameter of less than 8 mm (!) are shot-peened. The shot peening media is also fully automatically recovered and reclassified for diameter and shape.
