BLAST CLEANING OF PASSENGER COACHES

 

CSR NANJING PUZHEN ROLLING STOCK CO., LTD.
NANJING, CHINA

 

CSR Puzhen is an enterprise specialized in the research and manufacture of rail transport equipment in China and is the first-class large-scale company in China's railway equipment manufacturing industry.

 

BACKGROUND
CSR Nanjing Puzhen decided to renovate an old manual blast chamber into a robotic blast cleaning chamber for the passenger coaches. The customer stressed the importance of superior surface quality and increased production capacity.

 

OBJECTIVES
The requirement was to blast clean completely exterior surfaces and essential interior surfaces of various metro cars within the specified cycle time.

 

Advantages of Automated Blast Cleaning

 

• considerable savings in production costs
• increased production capacity
• remarkable health and safety implications
• freedom to use any abrasive material
• desired surface cleanliness and roughness
• slight surface shaping by controlling the blast pressure
• working lifts and platforms not needed
• increased fatigue strength of specific welded joints

 

Technical Information

 

Nozzle diameter                       16 mm                   

Number of nozzles/robot         2                            

Blasting pressure                     6,5 bar                    

Blasting rate                             3 hours per car

Abrasive                                   Corundum

Degrees of freedom                 8

Programming                           Point-to-Point

Operation mode                       Automatic

 

SOLUTION

A Blastman B20S robot was installed in the existing manual blast chamber with two blast pots. The existing chamber was reinforced by steel structures. Additional silo and elevator were installed in order to ensure constant abrasive flow.

 

RESULTS

Blastman robot perfectly integrated into the customer’s existing manual blast chamber. The quality of surface roughness and cleanliness was improved. There is no need for manual blasting anymore. This was Blastman’s first renovation project in China. It gave potential customers a new idea of how to improve production with a robotic blast cleaning solution.