Optimization of the Shot Peening Parameters

Author:  Petit-Renaud
Source:  Conf Proc: ICSP-8 Sept. 16-20, 2002 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Doc ID:  2002018
Year of Publication:  2002
Abstract:  
Author Franck Petit-Renaud, USF Impact Finishers (Shot Peening Division) and USF Vacu-Blast International, Slough, UK Abstract The shot peening process is a complicated mechanism in materials science, which is still not fully understood. Despite a long history and a large number of investigations into the process it is still characterized by many areas of uncertainty. Notwithstanding this situation the aerospace and automotive industries have for years considered shot peening as a state-of-the-art process for the surface improvement, forming and life improvement of many parts. The work described in this paper is a study of the effect of a range of process parameters on the residual stress profiles produced by shot peening coupons of case carburized 17CrNiMo6 steel. The peening process utilized for the research was undertaken using a commercial shot-peening unit supplied by USF Vacu-Blast Limited using 0.6mm diameter shot. The process parameters investigated included air pressure, the mass flow, the impact angle, the distance between the nozzle and the specimen, the exposure time and the nozzle size. Using Minitab v12 software regression analyses were performed on the results obtained from the statistically designed experiments. It was found that the most significant parameters were air pressure, the mass flow, the impact angle and the exposure time. Further important and significant interactions were also detected between exposure time and air pressure; nozzle size and mass flow; air pressure and impact angle; nozzle size and air pressure.