So, Are You Shot Peening?

Author:  Kumar Balan | Blast Cleaning and Shot Peening Specialist
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 38, Issue 3, Summer 2024
Doc ID:  2024023
Year of Publication:  2024
Abstract:  
INTRODUCTION Confucius, the great Chinese educator and philosopher, said, “To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.” I start with this thought not to insinuate anything about peening practices but to establish the fact that there is still so much for all of us to learn. Confucius strived to make education broadly available which is our goal as well through this platform! During the early part of my sales career, I had an excellent boss whose line of motivation was, “go out and even lose a project, at least I know you’re doing something.” I am going to draw on some examples from the past to demonstrate that “something” which continues to be categorized as shot peening by different users. At that time, it appeared that such users were cleaning and not peening. However, upon more recent contemplation, I am beginning to wonder if their activities did have merit and perhaps my dismissive attitude was premature. Condoning a supposed peening process as incorrect or terming it blast cleaning is an obvious outcome when looked at under the lens of specifications that we are required to conform to. Justifiably, to most of us, work life outside of these peening specifications is non-existent and our actions are heavily influenced by the need for conformance to such documents! In these discussions, I propose to infuse renewed energy into those entities, projects, and applications that perhaps do not (required to) monitor velocity, media shape, size, credit them as appropriate and maybe offer a few suggestions to help them develop their processes.