KSA Kugelstrahlzentrum Aachen GmbH (Aachen Shot Peening Centre), a job shop and engineering company specialized in Controlled Shot Peening, started operating its new production facility for double-sided, simultaneous, robot-aided peen forming at the beginning of the year.

Now, two high-precision        7-axis peening facilities are in operation. On the first, 500 Airbus side shells and more than 600 tank segments for European space rockets ARIANE 4 and ARIANE 5 have been successfully peen formed in Aachen. The ARIANE programme has allowed to develop an automated shot peening process which is unparalleled worldwide.

Steel shot of up to 10 mm in diameter are in use for forming jobs. The machines are suitable for components up to a maximum size of 5.500 x 3.500 x 1.800 mm (length x height x width). Positional accuracy is ± 0.1 mm for the motions of the nozzles. The piece to be worked on is fed and removed by means of a rail transporter. KSA is certified as an aeronautic and aerospace supplier (BDLI-QSF/B, corresponding to EN 29002 or ISO 9002).

The new facility includes two robots with pressure peening systems, online classification of the shot used, online velocity measurement as well as an integrated 3-D laser measurement system. The KSA software facilitates complete control and visual re-presentation of the process.

Demo of the new production facility in May:
As part of the official opening of the centre, the facility will be demonstrated for the first time in front of an interested public in May. Also MFN readers are welcome to the opening. Send an e-mail to info@kugelstrahlzentrum.de and KSA team will be delighted to send you an invitation.
The first project on the new facility is unique in Europe:  production of 1/4 dome tank segments for ARIANE 5. While tank segments half that size have been produced up to now, the introduction of 1/4 dome means considerable advantages for the customer with regard to costs and run times.

Double-sided injection highly suited for stringer-stiffened structures:
The facility's design for simultaneous double-sided peen forming is in keeping with the trend towards flexible manufacturing of more and more complex, multi-curved and stringer-stiffened components for, e.g. aircraft wing panels or fuselage.
Moreover, a new peen forming strategy has been developed in order to compress and stretch stringer stiffness locally, thereby organizing the peening process as efficiently as possible and with complete automation: peening the stringer simultaneously on both sides increases the effectiveness of each individual hit and improves material properties. Double-sided peening also provides the customer with quality and cost advantages when peen forming highly-complex structures.
The investment is a milestone in another respect. Controlled Shot Peening will now be used in robot-aided series production for the first time, with on-line documentation of the process data, visual representation of the process and integrated 3-D measurement. This will facilitate peen forming of more complex, stringer-stiffened components in completely new areas.

Unique Customers Benefits:
Only KSA Controlled Shot Peening provides online documentation and analysis of all significant control and peening data. Customer benefits include reproducible quality, improved material properties, a wide range of geometries without tool-setting, higher productivity as well as reduced  r&d and production times and lower costs. And the process has already proved successful in the series production of aeronautic parts.
KSA's expertise in implementing Controlled Shot Peening as a highly-automated peen forming process makes it an ideal partner for customers from the aeronautic and aerospace industries who require high-end applications. Support services  include       engineering (development support, certification, process automation and implementation), system integration of custom-made HW- and SW-solutions and, last but not least, contracting for series production. These advantages and access to economic and flexible state-of-the-art production facilities provide the customer with excellent conditions for top-class results.

Your contact:
Dr.-Ing. Frank Wüstefeld
Tel.: +49(0)241-87 97 95-1
e-mail: wuestefeld
kugelstrahlzentrum.de
www.kugelstrahlzentrum.de