The USF Surface Preparation Group occupied a 255sq m stand area in Hall 16 and represented activities of the group which are dedicated to the foundry and forging industries. Principally these were shot blasting machines and mass finishing machines from companies Schlick, Pangborn Europe spa, Spencer Tilghman, Walter Trowal, Gutmann and Wheelabrator Berger.
Just to prove the available technology, the booth included four actual exhibits, the largest, which dominated the rear section of the booth was a Pangborn Europe continuous type machine Model TR6-13. Built for an existing customer, this blast machine was developed for medium and large loadings in a continuous and automatic process.  Typical output is 15-18 ton/h of grey iron castings with a single weight of up to 300 kg and diagonal diameters of 900 mm.  As shown, the machine incorporated 6 x 45 kW blast wheels.
The second exhibit was a development from Schlick, a robot gripper machine.  this is a 6 axis programmable robot arm used for manipulating workpieces inside the blasting chamber.
The robot is kept outside the machine where a special sealing column protects the robot and employee whilst the component is being blasted. Workpiece weights of 150 kg with a rotating diameter of 650 mm can be achieved.
To give a typical cycle time, this can be around 30 – 40 seconds in die casting applications.  There are several interesting examples of these gripper machines already working in companies.
A further exhibit from Walther Trowal was shown, a typical CB Bowl machine for deburring and polishing castings.  The machine was linked to a drying machine and to a water-cleaning system, to complete the package. Six models are available in the CB range from 200 – 1200 litres capacity.
Finally, another innovation was the “Cool Blast” dry ice cleaning machine type DIS10 and DIS30.  These are for complete cleaning of moulds etc and many foundry parts very effectively and with no harm to the most delicate machinery, only the dirt removed remains.
To complete the communication package with customers, the group had prepared a special website for the event: www.sufacepreparationgifa.com.
Altogether a very successful blend of happy atmosphere and technical content, which resulted in more than 700 very interesting enquiries.

For information:
Tel. +49.221.83 94-0
E-mail:info@usf-oft.de