Heinrich Dropmann, who heads up the wheelblast team at Wheelabrator’s Technology Centre in Metelen, Germany, explains: “Blast simulation technology allows us to find and fine-tune the right machine type and configuration before anything is designed or built. The visualisations are a great basis for discussion with the customer, helping us to hone the specification pre-contract and find the most efficient solution. This takes a great deal of technical risk out of the design process, as well as saving time and money.”

Already, the simulation takes into account over 140 parameters to provide a “close-to-reality” blast pattern, but the Wheelabrator team is working on further verifying the effects of specific variables, such as angle, velocity, amount, size and shape of the abrasive, as well as ricochet effects. Efforts are also underway to map various parameters of surface quality as part of the simulation – for example, roughness and almen values.

Heinrich Dropmann concludes: “The more accurate our blast simulation, the more effective and efficient is the resulting machine. For example, the simulation might give us and the customer the confidence to reduce the number of blast wheels, resulting in energy and abrasive savings. Overall, using simulations at concept stage means we can cut lead times for new machines drastically, but with maximum confidence in the blast process.”