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One of Europe’s leading manufacturers of high-performance hydraulic accumulators for demanding environments has upgraded and expanded its production facilities with a free-standing blast-room with high-grade noise containment from Hodge Clemco.
Quality Hydraulic Products Ltd (QHP) manufactures the accumulators in standard and bespoke designs for customers throughout the world in many sectors including off-shore oil and gas, petro-chemicals, mining and defence. The company’s products meet the highest international standards in the relevant industries.
The accumulator bodies are manufactured from solid carbon and stainless steel billets, which are bored out to the required dimensions before being painted and having the internal mechanisms installed. The cylinders range from 10 litres to 400 litres capacity, weighing up to two tonnes.
The new blast-room, measuring 3m wide x 2.5m high x 6m long and located within a production area, is dedicated to surface preparation of carbon steel cylinders before they are painted. Walls and roof are double-skin prefabricated steel panels filled with mineral wool slab which reduces noise levels outside the room by up to 30dBA compared with a conventional design. Walls and doors are lined with shot-blast curtains, and the floor is steel plate.
Media is projected by a 2452 SGV blasting machine via a tungsten-carbide-lined nozzle, which is designed to maintain maximum blasting velocity, uniform abrasive distribution and high work-rate over a long operating life. Air inlet ducts and exhaust air outlets in the chamber ensure highly effective cross-draught ventilation in order to provide good visibility for operators.
Abrasive is recovered for re-use by means of an IND200P pneumatic suction filter unit linked to a sweep-in hopper in the floor of the blast room. A vacuum silo receives all spent media, dust and debris from the floor hopper, separates out re-usable abrasive and places it into a storage hopper from where it automatically re-fills the blast machine. The system is adjustable to allow for different types of abrasive.
Hodge Clemco also supplied a protective suit and an Apollo 600CE helmet with several advanced features for operator safety and comfort.