Title: Automatic abrasive blasting system for large diameter pipe bends

Authors: Longwang Yue; Kong Fah Tee; Baoguo Liu; Tengfei Feng

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, China; Department of Engineering Science, University of Greenwich, UK ' Department of Engineering Science, University of Greenwich, UK ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, China

Abstract: Abrasive blasting is an important surface treatment process. Aiming at overcoming the shortage of the manual abrasive blasting process for large diameter pipe bends, T-pipes and gas collecting tubes, this paper presents the study of automatic abrasive blasting for large diameter pipe bends. According to the requirement of blasting process of large diameter pipe bend, the 5-DOF orthogonal coordinate abrasive blasting mechanism is constructed. Due to the massive dust and serious wear, the seal and protective measures of the mechanism are fully considered. In order to maintain a reliable operation of abrasive blasting system in severe environment, an automatic control system based on PLC is designed. In order to keep a specific angle between the sand-blasting gun and the workpiece surface, which can improve the working efficiency, the surface tracking control model was constructed based on the infrared distance measuring sensors. In order to improve the measurement accuracy of the sensors, the second order linear fitting method based on the least square method was used to calibrate the infrared range sensors. The experimental results indicate that the proposed automatic abrasive blasting system has significance on improving sand blasting quality, working efficiency and environment as well as reducing labour costs.

Keywords: large diameter pipe; pipe bend; automatic abrasive blasting; attitude adjustment method; surface tracking; least square method.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2019.100968

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2019 Vol.33 No.3/4, pp.268 - 282

Received: 10 Jun 2016
Accepted: 25 Apr 2017
Published online: 22 Jul 2019 *

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