Rolling on at Specialty Steel Fabricator

New blast cleaning system replaces two older models

July 1, 2009

With its plant facility move in summer 2008 from Markham to Aurora, Ont., Modern Railings and Metalcraft Ltd. purchased a roll conveyor system for the new location.

The Canadian-owned metal fabricator employs approximately 40 skilled craftspeople and serves the North American construction industry. Typical parts for cleaning include flat bars, angles, channels, wide-flange beams, I-beams, and HSS (hollow structural section) tubing.

When Modern Railings owner and President Ken Lilley decided to move his operations from one city to another, he approached Wheelabrator Group, a provider of surface preparation and finishing systems based in Burlington, Ont., to design a new roll conveyor system to replace two older roll conveyor machines that were showing their age. The company had first considered rebuilding these existing models but realized it would be too expensive with the refurbishing process and the logistics in relocating the equipment.

“The primary consideration in the design was in reducing the height of the dust collector to ensure it did not interfere with the overhead cranes,” said Joan Lilley, vice president. “However, we did require the design to be revised midway through the design stage to account for space-related issues with the blast machine and associated ductwork.”

Wheelabrator’s sales representative, Don Pelle, took Lilley and the rest of the team to a customer site to show them a similar operating Wheelabrator roll conveyor system that recently had been installed. It was at this time that the company realized the best decision for their future operation was a new blast cleaning system.  A final decision was made, and the system was purchased in February 2008 and installed in August.

Running one shift per day, five days per week, the cleaning process has been simplified with the recent investment.

“We generally run our shotblast system on the highest speed setting for blasting mild steel parts, typically to a SP6, commercial finish,” said Joan Lilley. “The steel parts can range in length from 10 to 60 ft.  The machine also has safety features that were not on our old machine.  We have also been using our new system to clean material for other fabricator’s projects.”

The Process

Steel is loaded by an overhead crane onto the entrance roll conveyor with the blast system set in automatic mode.  When the steel to be cleaned enters the blast chamber, the steel activates a sensor which automatically starts the steel shot abrasive flow. 

The system automatically turns the abrasive on and off. The system also includes an automatic abrasive blowoff at the exit end of the machine. The installation of the new cleaning system provided the immediate benefits of increased production capacity, improved blasting efficiency, and reduced operating costs, according to the company.

“In our old facility we had two machines, one to clean small parts and pieces of material and one used for larger steel parts,” said Joan Lilley. “Our new shotblast system has a larger opening which allows for the cleaning of parts and pieces of material of various sizes at the same time.  This machine is considerably quieter than our old machine, and we are saving on steel shot mix as we are using one-third the amount of abrasive with this machine as previously required.  We are also saving on maintenance and replacement parts.”

The roll conveyor was the first piece of machinery installed in the company’s new Aurora facility. Before shipping, the machine was wired and wet-run with abrasive to ensure a smooth installation. A full installation package was purchased consisting of complete mechanical and electrical installation, start-up and equipment commissioning, plus operation and maintenance training. In total, a little over two weeks were required to complete the work.

For more information, visit www.wheelabratorgroup.com.