We are excited to share that we have recently purchased more equipment to offer even more services to our customers. 

 

Latem Industries Limited will be installing several new shot blasting/shot peening equipment over the next couple of months.  These machines will allow us to widen our services in ceramic media blasting, directional blasting as well as tube and pipe blasting.

 

Shot blasting is a set of technical processes designed to remove various impurities from metal surfaces. We use it to clean contaminants like dirt and oil from mass quantities of parts at once. It’s also a highly efficient method of removing metal oxides like rust or mill scale.

 

Shot blasting is an important step in preparing metal parts for painting, powder coating or other coating methods that require a clean surface in order to adhere. It is practically mandatory in many industries, including the automotive, metal manufacturing, aviation, shipbuilding industries, as well as foundries and the production of welded structures.

 

Latem Industries utilizes various methods to meet our customers’ specific shot blasting requirements. Here are a list of blasting options at Latem:

 

1. Tumble Blasting

 

Tumble blast machines are comprised of either a rubber or steel belt that’s driven within an enclosed blasting cabinet. Metal components are placed into the blasting cabinet in batches, where they are continuously impacted by one or more high-pressure streams of abrasive materials (called shot or blasting media.) 

 

We can vary the type, shape, size and density of the abrasive materials to achieve different results. The metal abrasives we utilize in tumble blasting include steel grit, steel shot and glass bead.  One of the new machines currently going in will incorporate ceramic media.

 

During the tumble blasting process, the metal components are also continuously bumping against each other to help knock off surface contaminants and defects.  Some of the advantages of this type of blasting is a consistent finish, with competitive pricing as many parts can be ran at once.

 

 

2. Index Table Blasting

 

Index table blast machines are comprised of a blasting chamber with a large, circular turntable and several smaller ‘satellite’ tables attached to the turntable’s surface.   The table indexes under a stream of blast media, cleaning the part.   

 

Index table blasting allows us to process rotationally symmetrical shapes in large batches. The operation is well-suited for components that are fragile and cannot withstand the impact of hitting against each other in a tumble blasting operation. Some of the common applications include cleaning, finishing and deburring of axles, draft shafts and gear assembles.

 

3. Conveyor blasters

 

Conveyor blasting is when the part is fixtured on a belt or hung from a hook and sent through a blast chamber.  Multiple blast wheels fire media at the part from multiple angles to ensure complete coverage.  Ideal for larger and/or longer parts.  Tooling can be built to run multiple pieces per hook, making it very efficient as well.

 

4. Conveyor blasters for pipe and tube

 

Similar to the above conveyor blaster, the part is fed through a blast chamber where multiple wheels are firing media at the part.  The difference on this line,  is that the part is rotated as it goes through the blaster to ensure 100% coverage on all sides of the part when doing shot peening.  This ensures no weak spots on the steel part.  This is another new machine that is going in over the next couple of months, furthering our abilities to help our customers.