From mobile phones to vehicle bodies, most products and equipment undergo vibration testing as part of their development or quality assessment. One of the leading companies specialising in vibration test system repair and maintenance has installed a customised blast cabinet from Hodge Clemco to upgrade its services.
Repair and rewinding of the electric coils in vibration equipment is a key service offered by Cambridgeshire-based 1G Dynamics and involves stripping existing copper wiring off the aluminium armatures along with any aluminium tube used for cooling the equipment. Before being rewound, the surface of the armature and cooling tube are prepared to provide a key for the final resin coating.

The Hodge Clemco cabinet allows armatures to be processed manually with a hand-held blast gun, while tubing is dealt with semi-automatically by means of four nozzles positioned around an exit hole in the chamber. Armatures are loaded into the cabinet on a track-and-turntable system that allows the operator to rotate them using glove ports, with a foot valve controlling blasting. All four surfaces of square tubing are treated automatically as it is pulled through the chamber on to a spool turned by an operator.

The chamber measures 1250mm wide x 1000mm deep x 1500mm high and includes high-quality illumination, convenient viewing window and fully sealed glove ports. Double-skin construction has been used to reduce noise, and extra ventilation has been included to improve visibility for operators. Boron carbide nozzles fitted to the five blast guns provide long-term durability.

The abrasive hopper has a removable screen to trap large particles, with smaller material being passed through a cyclone to remove dust and spent abrasive. A cartridge-type dust collector with a removable blower unit has been included for quick and easy exchange of filter cartridges.