Interview

More than 70 years have passed since the first mass finishing vibrator was invented, so it would be understandable if mass finishing was looked upon as a so-called “sunset industry” whose importance in the surface refinement market is declining. Quite the opposite is true! Thanks to a continuously expanding range of inventive finishing applications, this “old” technology is more relevant than ever in today’s manufacturing environment. It allows for effective and cost-efficient surface finishing, be it simple deburring or high gloss polishing, of extremely complex and delicate work pieces. This also includes the treatment of difficult-to-reach surface areas like internal passages, undercuts, drilled holes, etc. Mass finishing processes are always defined by the interplay between the machinery on the one hand and the consumables – media and compound – on the other; therefore, it is not surprising that to a large extent, the creation of new applications is driven by new, innovative products in the field of media and compounds. MFN had the opportunity to discuss some of these exciting developments with Christian Höhn, Head of Technology Management at Rösler Oberflächentechnik GmbH in Germany.

We had an opportunity to talk to Dr. Tan Kai Liang (K. L.) from Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), Singapore. Dr. Tan is the Organising Committee chair of INCASE 2021, which was successfully held from 7th – 8th Sept 2021 virtually. In this interview, he shared with us the highlights of the conference and what to look forward in INCASE 2023.

This month MFN meets Mario Guagliano, Full Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, a very well-known university in a top position in the international rankings for Engineering, Architecture, and Design. He is one of the academic leaders in shot peening. We met him in his office and we had the opportunity to talk about the next 14th International Conference on Shot Peening, which he will chair. After being postponed due to the Covid pandemic, ICSP14 will be hosted at Politecnico di Milano on September 4-7, 2022.

The ECOROLL AG Werkzeugtechnik is a tool manufacturer for tools for mechanical surface treatment. ECOROLL has developed and sold mechanical and hydrostatic rolling tools for many years. This year, ECOROLL extends its portfolio with a machine hammer peening tool, ECOpeen. Within the interview, we spoke with three innovators at ECOROLL about their latest innovation, the ECOsense technology. As CEO Dr. Karsten Röttger describes it, ECOsense is a technology for future business models in deep rolling. With the ECOsense technology, ECOROLL enables the mechanical surface treatment for smart factories of the future. It measures the rolling forces, evaluates the processes, and sends information directly to the customer. How they developed ECOsense, what the initial motivation was and what the plans for the future are, MFN discusses with CEO Dr. Karsten Röttger, Head of R&D Dr. Oliver Maiß, and Digitalization specialist Florian Uhlich.

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Science Update

Author : Hongfei Liu ,Chee Kiang Ivan Tan

Standards Forum

Author : Charlie Clouet

Off the Beaten Track

Author : Giovanni Gregorat

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