Tailormade, automated surface finishing solutions

No other industry has higher quality standards for cast parts than the automotive industry. However, shorter product life cycles, a broadening product range and increasing cost pressures require that manufacturing systems be both extremely flexible and cost-effective. This not only applies to the casting process itself but also to the subsequent deburring and surface finishing steps. In recognition of this fact - and especially in an effort to improve its competitiveness - Koenig Precision Co. recently purchased a new shot blast system for castings.

Higher quality and efficiency - with 8 blast wheels
Koenig Precision Co. is a specialised job shop for finishing of castings. The business started in 2000 with degating, manual deburring and quality control. Since mid 2006 Koenig has been operating a high production shot blast system. This investment has become necessary for an automotive customer who awarded Koenig their business for deburring and surface finishing of aluminum diecast torque converter and transmission housings. Prior to this significant investment the Koenig management team consisting of Rolf Koenig and Harald Zeiler researched the available blast systems at Rösler and other well known equipment manufacturers in Germany and Europe. Mr. Koenig says, "At Rösler we received extensive technical advice, and they provide us with excellent technical support." 

Blast cycle times of 12 seconds
The job is not easy: It requires the all-round blast cleaning of a total of 9 different aluminum diecastings weighing from 5,000 to 8,500 grams and a height of up to 400 mm. All parts are "cup-shaped" posing the danger of extensive media carry-out. The infeed cycle time is 12 seconds per part. Rösler developed the optimum blast process for these parts through extensive trials in the Rösler demonstration lab. The result was a RDGE wire mesh belt machine, equipped with 8 high performance Hurricane blast wheels which guarantee an excellent and consistent finish of the complex diecastings. Mr. Zeiler explains that "the special angle at which the blast wheels are mounted ensures that all parts contours and cavities are blasted with the same intensity preventing any "shadowing". The blast results are excellent!"

 Dual tracks guarantee high efficiency and quality
A special feature of the RDGE 1000-8 is the fact that the wire mesh belt, with a total width of 1000 mm, is divided into two tracks. Currently Koenig is processing 2,500 parts a day. This represents a capacity utilization of less than 50%, offering the company plenty of spare capacity for future growth. To improve its competitiveness the company already replaced manual deburring with deburing robots. Mr. Koenig explains that in a further step "the loading of the shot blast machine will also be automated". Another special feature is the unload system of the shot blast machine: It allows the automatic and consistent removal of all blast media that might be carried out with the "cup-shaped" parts. The reclaimed blast media is automatically returned to the blast machine.