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“Today, people are much more aware of shot peening's critical importance”

Ron Wright is Wheelabrator Group's manager for automated airblast and peening in North America. In the industry since 1985, Ron has deep experience in every aspect and application of shot peening, from process and machine design through to implementation and training. We talked to Ron to get his take on peening in North America today.

Ron, thanks for joining us today. Tell us a little about your role and any changes you’re seeing in peening today?

I help our customers create peening processes that will produce exactly the effect they need for their components and often specify the Wheelabrator machine that will make that process possible. I also deliver training and other support for our customers, from faultfinding to process optimization. It’s an incredible exciting time in peening. While some other industry processes are on the decline, it’s the reverse for shot peening. Demand is climbing back above pre-Covid levels, which is fantastic.

What’s the most active industry for peening right now?

Aerospace in North America is really taking off, if you’ll pardon the pun. There’s been a 12% increase in passenger travel so far in 2024 which means more new planes and extra MRO, as existing planes are flying more often. 

Some companies have tripled their workload and that is trickling down to tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers. A lot of those people talk to us.

We’re seeing more peening of aircraft wheels and we’ve had multiple new aviation orders, particularly from MRO providers. For example, the two multi-axis airblast machines we’re building for peening rotating aero engine parts like fan blades and blisks (combined fan blades and disks).
 
Aircraft | Wheelabrator

Is Aerospace the prime industry for peening?

Peening is critical in many applications, especially in aviation, where it strengthens parts and improves resistance to fatigue, stress corrosion cracking, and galling. This allows critical parts to be lighter, which is highly desirable in aerospace.

Our largest, most sophisticated machines are in action here. One customer’s spinner-hanger machine treats wing parts like ribs and spars, while another 10-wheel machine peens other structural parts. With full computer control, we can precisely specify every part of the process: shot flow, wheel movement, wheel speed, and part position.

Many aircraft components, like large structural sections, are shot peened to improve fatigue resistance. We can track and record the entire process, which is vital in aerospace. Repeatability is crucial in peening; it’s essential to meet specifications consistently. This reliability is what customers, particularly in aerospace, prioritize when purchasing our machines.

 

 

Are there any new applications?

I think the benefits of peening are more widely known, so we’re seeing design engineers in other sectors choosing shot peening. 

For example, a major forklift manufacturer came to us to improve the service life of its forks. By shot peening the bend where the fork meets the upright, we increased fork life by 600%. Once we’d perfected the process, they installed our machines globally.

Peening springs and wheels is standard practice in rail but I’m currently developing a process to reduce failures in thin-walled railway pins and getting great results. Robotic spring peening is growing quickly this year too, we’ve put in equipment from South Carolina to Mexico.

Why do you think peening is still spreading to new applications?

The biggest change is peening’s progression from just a procedure to a mission-critical process. It used to be something that “had to be done” because it was written on a spec or a drawing, and carried out by inexperienced operators who didn’t really understand what they were trying to do.

Now people are much more aware of shot peening’s critical importance. There’s much better understanding of it too, it’s better defined and regulated. There’s analysis, there’s ongoing effort to improve and it’s much more specification-driven.

Have newer specifications helped in this transition?

The old spec – MIL-S-13165C – is now obsolete and the SAE’s AMS-2430U is the new bible. It gives detailed instructions on how to analyze and specify coverage and intensity, and develop saturation curves – the three main ingredients of a successful peening process. Then there’s the more stringent AMS-2432 spec for computer-monitored peening, which we comply with easily.

The clarity these standards bring leaves no room for misinterpretation. There is only one accepted way anywhere to establish and meet these criteria. That has helped everybody a lot, along with much better training in peening.
 

How has better education improved peening in practice?

Over the past decade, shot peening operators have become much more competent. When I visit a customer, I see many more trained personnel. That said, there's still a pressing need for more, which is why demand for training remains high.

Companies understand they need to educate their people and there’s a lot more training available. In the workshops we run, numbers are going up all the time and we see quality control, engineering, machine operators and many other roles represented there.
 
Where do customers struggle?

They don’t necessarily know how to apply peening theory to improve their process, and this is where I come in. Better training means I don’t have to spend time on the basics, like explaining what an Almen strip is. 

Customers ask pretty smart questions, right from the start. I can go straight to helping them consistently achieve the very best result with their machine, whether that’s a new one from us or their existing equipment.
 

With Wheelabrator now building some incredible robotized Airblast machines, is there still a place for wheel blast in peening?

Absolutely. Compared to wheel blasting, Airblast peening is more precisely controlled with twice the media velocity. It’s perfect for intricate areas, with nozzles that reach inside castings. More applications are turning to Airblast.

Air can be used effectively on large surfaces too, like robotically peen-forming aircraft wings. Its higher target factor makes the process easier to set up, consumes less shot, and reduces machine wear.

“We created these peening fixtures to show a customer we could achieve uniform intensity and coverage throughout the work area.”

However, wheel blast peening excels in processing larger structures like railway wheels or where the wheel blast pattern matches the part, as in our spring peening machines. Wheel blasting has higher shot flow and potentially higher throughput.

We constantly evolve our blast wheels to improve performance and reduce wear, even on powerful machines. This often allows us to achieve more coverage with fewer wheels, reducing machine size and maintenance frequency. 

Shot Peening | Wheelabrator

It's sharing my experience with others that I find the most rewarding. Faultfinding, in particular, is an area where I can pass on a lot of knowledge. A customer will come to me saying: “My peening machine has worked great for two years but today it’s not. What do I do?”. I’ve set up enough machines to know that the answer usually lies in two of five possible areas. Check them all out and you will certainly find the problem.

You can always tell when you have hit a nerve in training workshops: “Yes, we have exactly that problem and now I know where to look to solve it.” 

I often get emails out of the blue from people who have attended a seminar and can’t quite remember the solution to a problem – which they are now experiencing. 

The world of shot peening has become a real community and it’s great to be able to help each other out.

Ron - Thank you for your time!

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