Despite the economic crisis that is still affecting global daily financial business, aerospace industry seems to be less impacted than others.
People around the globe are increasing their travel plans and planes are more and more considered as the standard way of transportation. As a result, from these increased travel plans, the global emissions of greenhouse gasses are at their highest level ever and appropriate actions have to be taken, to ensure a sustainable world, for today and for next generations.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that sets binding obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
As part of the Kyoto Protocol, many developed countries have agreed to legally binding limitations/reductions in their emissions of greenhouse gases in two commitments periods. The first commitment period applies to emissions between 2008-2012, and the second commitment period applies to emissions between 2013-2020.
To meet the obligations on industrialised countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the European Commission launched its largest-ever aero-engine research programme in March 2000, costing a total of 101 million. The purpose of the Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Aero Engine (EEFAE) project is to develop the advanced technology needed to meet the obligations as set out in the Kyoto protocol and to maintain European industry's competitive position as a supplier of advanced turbofan engines for the next generation of commercial jet aircraft.
Cutting CO2 emissions through reduced fuel burn and reducing NOx levels will deliver a major contribution to long-term environmental protection. Additional goals include lowering life cycle costs by 30% and improving reliability by 60%.
Another goal is to reduce the weight and size of engine-related components and systems, such as gearboxes or the control system that regulates an engine’s rate of combustion.
When it comes to weight reduction, shot peening plays a vital role in the manufacturing process of these engine-related components.
As engine-related components are getting smaller and smaller and will have more complicated shapes, new demanding tasks are set for automated shot peening machines.

Robotic shot peening machines.

To meet the demanding tasks, robots are more and more used and widely accepted as nozzle manipulating systems due to their high accuracy and repeatability. Most robots are traditionally programmed manually, resulting in “Down Time”. The use of these robots with specially developed programming software facilitates precision off-line programming. Provided with built in collision detection, “down time” will be reduced significantly when introducing new components or updating programs.
Multiple types and designs of nozzles are required to peen said complicated-shaped engine components. Custom-made shot peen nozzles & lances are developed to reduce process time and improve uniform distribution of residual compressive stress in the whole component.
Currently, most of all shot peening machines have manual changing of nozzles and/ or lances; new robotic shot peening machines will be equipped with an automated change function that will facilitate the “Green Button” process, hence reducing manual intervention & improving process flow. 
The latest shot peening machines do have the ability to monitor & control all KPV’s. The control system is fully automatic and closed loop. The control system will deliver unrivalled levels of process reliability and repeatability. The control system will log individual component process parameters that can be used for long-term analysis and will meet the requirements of governing bodies (e.g. FAA, EASA) and OEM’s to automatically control critical processes.
The Kyoto protocol has been a catalyst for OEM’s in aero-engine manufacturing and as a direct result thereof, shot peening machine manufacturers had to follow these developments.
New standards are set in shot peening machine manufacturing; automated and precision shot peening machines to satisfy the needs of the future. A unique process within the production line; manufacturing critical aero-engine components that provide the necessary thrust for commercial aircraft engines powering aircraft such as the Boeing 777 & Dreamliner, Airbus A380 and the XWB family.

For questions contact:
marco@mfn.li