Home Forums General Discussion Shot Peening Process, Intensity, Coverage Catch Bucket Flow Rate

Hi,

I need a method to measure flow rate of a suction/blast peening setup. The high tech valves on the market that control and measure flow rate would require too much machine modification and cost. I have seen a few mentions of a catch bucket method, primarily from The Shot Peener (Volume 3 Issue 3 Fall 1989). Almost everything I found online mentions general testing procedures, but does not go into detail on the catch bucket itself.

--Does anyone have experience with the catch bucket method?
--Are there any good design guidelines or suggestions to an effective catch bucket (material, geometries, relieving built up air pressure, etc.)?


A second question:
--Will there be any effect on my flow rate measurement if I isolate only one nozzle to run at a time for the test, versus running all nozzles (8) and catching only one nozzle at a time worth of shot?
I ask because when the machine runs with only 1 nozzle, the pressure gauge reads a few psi higher.

Thanks

My catch bucket method involved directing the shot stream into a cheap plastic funnel which had a rubber tube attached - flexible enough to feed the shot into a cheap plastic bucket. A hole was made in a piece of very fine gauge netting (finer than the shot size). The rubber tube was then fed through the hole in the netting and an elastic band used to secure the piece of netting to the rubber tube. The netting was then spread over the top of the bucket and secured with a piece of elastic string. Netting over the bucket prevented shot escape and also prevented build-up of air pressure. The bucket was placed such that the rubber tube went through a gentle curve of about ninety degrees.

Total cost was the equivalent of two US dollars - within my University's petty cash budget!

With regard to your second question: you could reduce the air pressure on the one nozzle until it read the same as when all eight nozzles were in use.

Thanks Socrates, great suggestions.