Less heavy thanks to shot peening

More power through less weight is the motto of e-mobility. Shot peening compacts the material of fragile components and extends their service life. A well-known contract service provider therefore invested in a new shot peening system.

Shot peening is a strain hardening process that improves the properties of components subjected to particularly severe alternating stresses. The service life of components subjected to continuous vibration is increased by shot peening. Shot peening has become indispensable in the automotive sector. The fatigue strength of components is essential here for safety reasons.

But the process can also improve the dynamic strength of lightweight materials. "Shot peening helps reduce weight by compensating for a reduction in material. The blasted components obtain their required fatigue strength. They are resistant and loadable," explains KST Managing Director Marco Heinemann. This effect makes shot peening a problem solver for the automotive industry, especially for electromobility, where the weight of the battery still has to be compensated. However, components are also processed by shot peening in other sectors, such as aerospace.

KST Kugel-Strahltechnik has been offering shot peening as a service for more than 35 years. Since August 2019, shot peening at the contract blasting company from Hagen has been running on the new drum blast machine. It uses arroded wire grit as the blasting medium. With the acquisition of the new barrel blast machine, managing director Heinemann reacted to the increased demand from suppliers of the automotive industry, more precisely, from the spring industry, from stamped and bent part manufacturers and producers of fasteners.

With the new system, the surface specialists process metallic bulk materials with a component length of up to around 200 millimeters. The drum guarantees 100 percent batch reliability, even for small parts for which the previously used troughed belt shot blast machines have reached their limits. The drum system prevents components from becoming jammed and facilitates discharge. This makes it possible to process very small components by type. "That's why we decided to invest a six-figure sum in the new system," says Managing Director Heinemann. KST has been active as an outsourcing partner for a wide variety of companies in the metalworking industry since 1982.

► KST Kugel-Strahltechnik GmbH

► www.kst-hagen.de