How does Steel Maru improve casting surface cleaning efficiency and achieve efficient descaling?
Publish Time: 2025-08-27
In the foundry industry, after demolding, castings are often covered with a dense layer of scale, molding sand, residual paint, and burrs. This not only affects the appearance quality but also reduces the adhesion of subsequent paint applications, even masking surface defects and affecting product performance. Traditional manual polishing or chemical pickling methods are inefficient, costly, and environmentally polluting, making them unable to meet the efficiency, environmental friendliness, and automation requirements of modern foundry production. Steel Maru, the core medium for shot blasting, has become a key technology for improving casting surface cleaning efficiency and achieving efficient descaling due to its high hardness, high density, excellent toughness, and recyclability.
1. High-Kinetic-Energy Impact Stripping of Oxide Layers
Driven by high-pressure air or a high-speed impeller, Steel Maru releases powerful kinetic energy upon impact, causing micro-cracks in the scale and rapidly stripping it from the substrate. Because oxide scale is brittle and has weak adhesion, while the base materials of castings (such as cast iron and cast steel) are relatively dense and tough, Steel Maru effectively removes surface impurities without damaging the base material, achieving precise cleaning that "removes dirt without damaging the material."
2. Uniform Coverage, No Dead Spots
Shot blasting equipment (such as crawler-type, catenary-type, and rotary table shot blasting machines) provides 360° coverage. Combined with rotating tooling, Steel Maru ensures uniform coverage of complex curved surfaces, internal cavities, grooves, and other areas of the casting that are difficult to reach manually. Whether it's an engine block, valve housing, or large structural component, it can achieve comprehensive and thorough cleaning, eliminating missed areas or residue.
3. High Hardness and Roundness Improve Cleaning Efficiency
High-quality Steel Maru is typically made of high-carbon cast steel. After quenching and tempering, it can reach a hardness of HRC 40–55, providing sufficient strength to break up stubborn oxide layers. Furthermore, steel maru is highly spherical, with a smooth surface and excellent fluidity. It is less likely to clog the nozzle during the blasting process, and rebounds evenly after impact, resulting in high energy transfer efficiency, significantly improving cleaning speed and quality consistency per unit time.
4. Recyclable, Reducing Operating Costs
Steel maru has excellent fatigue resistance and can be reused hundreds of times. In the automated shot blasting system, a three-stage recovery system—air separation, magnetic separation, and screening—effectively separates dust, debris, and damaged steel maru, returning qualified steel maru to the shot blasting system for recycling. This not only significantly reduces consumable costs but also waste emissions, aligning with the trend of green manufacturing.
5. Improved Surface Quality, Laying the Foundation for Subsequent Processes
Steel maru cleaning not only removes mill scale but also eliminates microburrs and parting line marks, resulting in a uniform natural metal color on the casting surface. Furthermore, the shot blasting process creates a microscopic compressive stress layer on the surface, which helps improve the material's fatigue resistance. The surface roughness (Ra value) of cleaned castings is controllable, providing an ideal base for subsequent painting, electroplating, or inspection.
6. Environmental and Safety Advantages
Compared to the waste acid, wastewater, and hazardous gases generated by pickling processes, Steel Maru shot blasting utilizes a dry, physical cleaning method that eliminates chemical pollution, resulting in a cleaner workshop environment and better operator health. Combined with a dust removal system, it effectively controls dust emissions and meets environmental regulations.
Steel Maru significantly improves the efficiency and quality of casting surface cleaning through high-energy impact, uniform coverage, high-hardness materials, recycling, and automated integration. It not only effectively removes impurities such as scale and molding sand, but also provides reliable support for subsequent processing and coating. It is an indispensable key process medium for modern foundries to achieve efficient, clean, and intelligent production.
