Saturation Curves and Process Design

Author:  Kumar Balan | Blast Cleaning and Shot Peening Specialist
Source:  The Shot Peener magazine, Vol 40, Issue 3, Summer 2026
Doc ID:  2026054
Year of Publication:  2026
Abstract:  
INTRODUCTION I am afraid that I must start by sounding like that person I was hoping I would not become, the reminiscing old shot peener, but here we are! For those of us that have spent considerable time in this industry, there are several situations that require the use of kid gloves. To an auditor, it might be the delicate exercise of handing out multiple non-conformances resulting in a failed audit. For a sales engineer, it might be the daunting job of presenting a significantly higher priced revision 6 of the original proposal after the customer has changed the scope as many times. To an installation technician, it might be the tactful task of informing the customer that a spinner hanger would have been a better choice of work handling arrangement for their application than the fixed table that just got installed. For me, it has been the interesting journey of explaining the significance of saturation curves while carefully and non-offensively laying it down that their selfclaimed ’peening’ operation was doing no more than ’cleaning’ components. More recently, I have been conducting onsite shot peening training for Electronics Inc. and blast cleaning training for Ervin Industries more frequently than before. Each session continues to expose me to some of those gaps seen among novice and experienced users alike. Graphs and charts do little to help with the explanation or mitigate this pain. Therefore, I would like to discuss select fundamental concepts with the aim of making shot peening and blast cleaning more inviting and manageable to users. Just as I started thinking about the framework for this article, I attended the SAE/ AMS semi-annual meeting in Troy, MI. Walter Beach, the Chair of both committees had started working on re-writing ARP 7488, Aerospace Recommended Practice – Peening Design and Process Control Guidance. This is intended for use as a reference document, with the OEM specification taking precedence. Walter has covered a variety of process aspects related to shot peening in this document that I wish to incorporate into our discussion. Though these are geared to aerospace users, they apply equally to other industries as well. (Note: Using this reference also adds to the credibility that this article is not AI generated!)