Shandong Kaitai Shot-Blasting Machinery Co., Ltd. is the biggest enterprise of foundry machinery and foundry products in China that integrates with technical research, development, production, installation, debugging services and sales. MFN had a chance to talk to Ruwei Liu, Technical Director of the company.

(?) MFN: What is the current situation of Shandong Kaitai?

(!) R. L.: The group consists of Industry Technologies Co., Ltd, shot-blasting machine Co., Ltd, New Materials Co., Ltd etc. Now it produces 150 thousands tons of steel shot, steel grit, cut wire shot, stainless steel shot, stainless steel cut wire shot, aluminium cut wire shot, and zinc cut wire shot every year. It is the biggest manufacturer of metal abrasive in China, covering 27% of the domestic market. Meanwhile, every year it makes 400 sets of shot-blasting machinery which covers 10% of the market and is the biggest manufacturer of shot-blasting machinery in China.

(?) MFN: What services do you provide at your customer service center for abrasive blasting?

(!) R. L.: The customer service center has all kinds of shot-blasting machines and can help customers choose a proper one, abrasives mixtures as well as the testing of cleaning grade and rough. Meanwhile, it can test abrasives that customers use, and provide assistance for customer’s equipment to decrease costs.

(?) MFN: What developments in the metal surface treatment industry have taken place in recent years in China?

(!) R. L.: In 2001, the production of steel has come to 73 billion tons. This usage number of steel has reached first place in the auto, shipyard, building steel structure, bridge, gas pipeline, railway, engineering machinery, wind power, forging, casting, heat treatment shops industries and areas, etc. The need for metal abrasives has reached 450-500 thousands tons, which covers one-third of the whole world. Meanwhile, the requirements for shot-blasting machines are very high.

(?) MFN: What has Kaitai Company done as far as research and development concerns?

(!) R. L.: In recent years, we have studied the relationships between metal abrasive and steel surface cleaning rough and cleanness, rust cleaning grade and coverage and cleaning time, steel painting life and rough etc. We have also studied the perfect method of forging impeller heat treatment. Meanwhile, we have investigated the relationships between different stainless steel shot cleaning stainless steel as well as aluminium material’s rough, coverage and stainless steel shot’s consumption, high carbon cast steel shot’s second quenching, and low carbon steel shot’s tempering furnace and life.

(?) MFN: What did you achieve in the studying of impellers?

(!) R. L.: We adopted a steel impeller of high Cr to improve outer precision and heat treatment’s broken carbon materiel to improve the life of the impeller. We have begun to produce steel impellers of Laishi, in which the impeller’s life is higher by 5-6 times than the commonly produced one.

(?) MFN: You have established a research center for shot-blasting equipment and metal abrasives, so what work do you undertake for shot-blasting machines, metal abrasives and testing standard?

(!) R. L.: The research center has two Ervin Test Machines from USA, a SPECTRO spectral analyzer from Germany, and two microstructure microhardness instruments to test metal abrasive. We have studied equipment of steel shot centrifugation, quenching and new cleaning machines. The company takes part in the setting of national standards as well as China’s machinery industry, and has set down 20 standards about metal abrasives and shot-blasting machines.

(?) MFN: What are your plans and expectations for the future?

(!) R. L.: Studying the relationships between different specifications, kinds, mixtures and coverage, while steel rust cleaning reaching the 2.5 grade is a main task. We are also studying the effects of different kinds of steel shot, steel grit, steel cut wire shot on the surface and painting life. Studying the effects of different rough, different cleanness Sa2.0, Sa2.5. Sa3 on the painting system’s life is another task. Through the study in shot blasting and equipment, we have a program of shot blasting and peening to decrease problems by 20%, increase the production by 20% and decrease consumption by 20-30%.

MFN would like to thank Ruwei Liu for the interview!

For Information:
Shandong Kaitai
Shot-blasting Machinery Co., Ltd.
Qingyang, Zouping, Shandong
256217, China
Tel. +86.543.4579616 / 4578888
Fax +86.543.4579617
E-mail: shotgrit@163.com
www.kaitaishotblasting.com