2004 Shot Peener of the Year Awards Presented

Date: October 2004, Dearborn, MI
The Shot Peener of the Year Awards are presented each year at the Electronics Inc. Annual Shot Peening & Blast Cleaning Workshop

Walter Beach
Quality Assurance Manager
Peening Technologies of Connecticut
The Shot Peener staff is pleased to recognize Walter Beach as a Shot Peener of the Year because of his significant contributions to process control. Walter played an integral role in obtaining the first NADCAP approval for a shot peening facility for Peening Technologies.

In 1991, Walter was hired by Hydro Honing Laboratories as a Process Planner. He is now the Quality Assurance Manager and co-owner. Founded in 1966 as a vapor blasting job shop, Hydro Honing Laboratories took its name from the "liquid honing" that was its first specialty. By 1967, Hydro Honing's capabilities had expanded to include shot peening and today the company has been in the shot peening business for over 30 years.

In 2003, the company opened Peening Technologies of Georgia, Inc. As part of an expansion, Hydro Honing's original facility was renamed Peening Technologies of Connecticut. Together, the two locations have grown to offer not only shot peening services (with vapor blasting still a small fraction of the business), but also state-of-the-art machine design and process development for a wide range of applications.

Walter shared his vast experience in his workshop class “Surviving a Shot Peen Audit”. He covered how to prepare for NADCAP, OEM and job audits, and the importance of preventive maintenance. Walter’s class was very informative; especially to suppliers to the aerospace industry. We appreciate his contribution to our workshop and the industry.

Dr. Eng. Katsuji Tosha
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Meiji University, Japan

Dr. Eng. Tosha has received a 2004 Shot Peener of the Year award for his achievements in teaching and research. Dr. Tosha teaches undergraduate and graduate classes and leads laboratory studies in Mechanical Engineering at Meiji University. He is also a tireless researcher on shot peening and has studied shot peening and blast cleaning on medium carbon steel, titanium and austenitic stainless steel. His research work covers the mechanism of residual stress formation, heat transfer characteristics, surface texture, and the surface integrity of peened materials. His research topics include number and size of dent, surface roughness, area coverage, hardness distribution, half width, residual stress, strain induced transformation, and FEM analysis.

In addition to his academic work, Dr. Tosha is a member of The Society of Shot Peening Technology of Japan and the International Scientific Committee on Shot Peening. Thanks to Dr. Tosha’s efforts, our understanding of shot peening has advanced tremendously and his students are well-equipped to apply the shot peening process in many fields after they graduate. We are fortunate that Dr. Tosha chose shot peening as his life’s work. Walter Beach received his plaque from Jack Champaigne at the 2004 Shot Peening and Blast Cleaning Workshop. Dr. Eng. Katsuji Tosha in front of a x-ray diffraction machine in the Meiji University Mechanical Engineering laboratory.

For more information on the Shot Peener of the Year Awards click here.