Walnut Hulls Clean Aluminum
Hulls inflict minimal substrate damage. Walnut hulls found to be best abrasive for cleaning aluminum surfaces prior to painting. Samples blasted with walnut hulls showed no compressive stress of surface.
Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Jackson, C. H..
Hulls inflict minimal substrate damage. Walnut hulls found to be best abrasive for cleaning aluminum surfaces prior to painting. Samples blasted with walnut hulls showed no compressive stress of surface.
Dispenses sealant, either manually or automatically, in predetermined amounts. Applicator encapsulates heads of fasteners with measured shot of sealant to protect from corrosive environments.
Water blasting system under development removes hard, dense, extraneous material from surfaces. High pressure pump forces water at supersonic speed through nozzle manipulated by robot. Impact of water blasts away unwanted material from workpiece rotated on air bearing turntable. Designed for removing thermal-protection material, system is adaptable to such industrial processes as cleaning iron or steel castings.
A test program was conducted to develop, optimize, and scale up an abrasive blasting procedure was developed for refurbishment of specific SRB components: aft skirt, forward skirt, frustrum, and painted piece parts. Test specimens utilizing 2219 T87 aluminum substrate of varying thicknesses were prepared and blasted at progressively increasing pressures with selected abrasives. Specimens were analyzed for material response. The optimum blasting parameters were determined on panel specimens and verified on a large cylindrical integrated test bed.