1. Introduction

Straaltechniek International BV is a member of the Straaltechniek International Group and is a family-owned group of companies, which consists of two real estate companies and eight manufacturing/trading companies in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The group is active in the fields of Surface Treatment and Industrial Air Handling.
For the SurfaceTreatment Division, the companies are joined together in a holding company. This holding company was founded in February 1982 by Naaykens Tilburg, who had already built the first blasting installations in 1957.
In the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, new companies were founded together with existing sales and technical staff. Other subsidiaries were founded or joined in the nineties of the past century or in the first decades of the present century.
Currently, a total of around 150 people are employed in the Straaltechniek International Group.
Straaltechniek International has focused itself on three industries:
Aviation - Marine and Oil & Gas - Wheelblasting
 
2. Aviation Industry

For the Aviation industry, Straaltechniek has focused on shot peening and has developed a complete range of machines for many different shot peening operations. Customers can be found in the new parts manufacturing or MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) of aero engine parts, landing gear components and many other parts. Many tailor-made machines have been designed and delivered, from simple semi-automated machines to high complex CNC- or robotic-operated machines. Many global OEM's are producing their parts, using a Straaltechniek machine.
In the last 5 years, high-end robotic shot-peening machines have been delivered to well-known aero engine OEM's. New standards have been set in relation to automation and reproducibility of the process, by developing and introducing advanced automated nozzle exchange systems.
Furthermore, a patented nozzle has been designed and successfully implemented, which is increasing the even distribution of compressive residual stresses in difficult accessible areas.
New developments are ongoing and will be implemented in 2016 robotic shot-peening machine deliveries, which will be a major improvement in respect to process stability and process quality assurance.

3. Marine and Oil & Gas Industry

Straaltechniek International has developed in the past years the Combi Hall concept for blasting huge sections for shipyards that are producing new buildings.
Straaltechniek International introduced in the early 90's a revolutionary design for the surface preparation of the ship sections. The design was based on the use of a re-usable abrasive and no longer the copper slag, which creates huge waste amounts, due to the fact that this is a single-use abrasive. Cost reductions of the waste amount were significant and brought many advantages for contractors. Furthermore, the design of the equipment was based on a one-stop shop, which means that the complete surface preparation (shot-blasting, cleaning of internal parts of the ship sections, as well as painting) is performed in one and the same workshop.
Therefore, the big halls were executed as combined blasting and painting halls, which reduces the internal transport of the ship sections on the shipyard to a minimum. Furthermore, the contractor is assured that they can perform the complete surface preparation for the ship sections 365 days per year, not depending on weather conditions anymore. In the past, it was common to perform shot blasting and paint spraying outdoors, under non-controllable conditions.
New developments have been realized in the Oil & Gas Industry for blasting of pipes on ocean-going pipe-laying vessels. In close cooperation with a global leading pipe-laying vessel operator, a unique dust-free blasting system has been developed for offshore usage.
Furthermore, the largest project ever built for the company has recently been put into operation. An advanced Custom Coating Facility has been delivered and installed in the Caspian region.
This facility is unique for the said region and will set new standards for anti-corrosion applications for subsea structures.
The facility is designed to process subsea steel structures and coat them in strict compliance with the highest offshore standards. The facility houses;
• a high-pressure water unit with reverse osmosis water treatment to wash steel structures prior to grit blasting
• a 900 m2 steel grit blasting room
• a 1.850 m2 painting room
• a 1.260 m2 PU-room
All rooms are designed and equipped with heating systems and dehumidifiers to control the temperature and relative humidity for each operation and to meet the highest offshore standards and to meet the highest environmental regulations.

4. Wheelblasting

As Straaltechniek has participated in designing and testing of better and cost saving blasting wheels for decades, the company designed a revolutionary blade, equipped with a support bracket over its entire width, which is a huge optimization compared to every other wheel in the industry.
This GN® wheel can be used in several areas of the industry:
• Shot blasting
• Grit blasting
• Shot peening
Traditional carbide blades support results in severe peak- and bending stresses within the blades and causes long downtime and high cost.
Straaltechniek International designed its blade in such a way that it is supported over the full width to reduce peak stresses by a factor of 10 compared to competitors' blades.
This unique design was recognized and awarded with a patent (BE 2012 / 0244)
The GN® Wheel is equipped with the latest TRIPLE "F" technology:
• Forward curved carbide blades
• Full width blade support
• Flow optimization
The GN® Wheels are 100% fully machined parts.
The blast wheel has two side discs and runner-heads, in order to assure a perfect balance of the wheel and a perfect guidance of the abrasive flow.
The symmetrical sandwich construction (double-disc) of the GN® Wheel channels the blasting abrasive efficiently through the wheel. While traditional wheels lose blasting power due to vortexing abrasives, power is optimized in the GN® Wheel, since connecting bolts are assembled within the revolutionary support brackets.
By design, collision speeds are reduced at the entrance leading to decreased wear of both blades and abrasive. Along with the shot/grit projection angle, this allows the projection speed to increase a further 25%, leading to a significant decrease in abrasive usage compared to wheels equipped with radial blades.
The blast wheel side plates as well as the impeller, control cage and feed spout are constructed of highly wear-resistant materials.
The GN® Wheels are available in diameters between 300 and 506 mm and fit to turbines housing of most current and future customers.
The advantages of the GN® wheels are:
• Lifespan of support disks up to 3 times longer
• Lifespan of the blades is over 10 x longer than tool steel blades
• Lifespan of the blades is 30% longer than carbide blades of any competitor
• Forward curved blades
• Reduced stresses on blades (10 x less) due to full width blade support
• Energy efficiency is increased by 14%
• Up to 70% more blasting efficiency
• Shot-flow optimization up to a factor of 7
• Retrofit possible on various machine brands
This new generation of blasting wheels boasts features that significantly reduce the cost of ownership whilst improving efficiency and reliability to guarantee excellent performance.

Currently the group exists of companies

Marco Klijsen
Managing Director of
Straaltechniek International BV
(the Netherlands)

For Information:
Straaltechniek International BV
Postbus 164 - 4900 AD, Oosterhout
The Netherlands
Tel. + 31.162.748 010
E-mail: Marco.Klijsen@Straaltechniek.net
www.straaltechniek.net