The new machine blast cleans individual crane components weighing up to 52t and with dimensions of up to 52m length, 3.5m width, and 4.2m height.

It has been designed as a combined pass-through monorail shot blast machine, is 36m long, 8m wide and tall, and split in two along the axis of transport. Inside, 24 powerful Titan blast wheels are arranged along two intersecting circles. Parts pass through a touch-up area for manual airblasting and abrasive removal.

Lars Südfels, product manager at Wheelabrator in Metelen, explains: “Despite the size of the machine, the devil was very much in the detail. To allow the transport crane hook to pass through, there’s a slit in the roof along the full length of the machine, and due to their size, parts always stick out of the blast chamber. Rubber lamellas and brushes as well as a clever door system were necessary to close off the chamber as tightly as possible.”

Due to the size of the parts, blasting had previously been done manually by an operator in a phone-box-size cabin that moved along the longitudinal axis of the workpiece. The work was physically demanding, and it took between 8 and 12 hours and several operators to manually airblast individual crane components. 

The switch from manual airblast to automated wheelblast means processing times are now down to 5h per part – a reduction of 35% to 60% compared to the previous process.

The working environment for operators on the line has also improved drastically, with a touch-up area built for ease of access and an automated wheelblast chamber looking after the heavy-duty element of the task.