A Five-Degree-of-Freedom Abrasive Blasting Vehicle for Ship Bottoms

• Published in: Journal of engineering technology Vol. 23; no. 2; p. 16
• Main Authors: Lin, Cheng Y, Crossman, Gary R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION 01.10.2006
• Subjects: Abrasives; Straight line; Students; Systems design; Working conditions
• ISSN: 0747-9964

This paper presents an automatic blasting vehicle for ship bottoms. A blasting head with two degrees of freedom, including roll and pitch angles, is mounted on a moving vehicle through a vertically swinging mechanism. The blasting head is lifted by the swinging mechanism through hydraulic power. With the use of a pressure relief valve in the circuit design, the blasting head is always automatically pushed against a curvilinear surface of a ship bottom during the blasting process. Steel abrasive particles are fed into a hydraulic pump and are projected centrifugally at high speed toward the surface to be blasted. Rubber seals between the blast machine and the hull ensure that all the abrasive, dust, and paint chips during the blasting process are directed back to the machine through a hopper. High-speed air is blown in to carry dust and paint chips into a dust collector while the heavy abrasive particles continue to fall and are recycled into the hydraulic motor. When compared to the open blasting process operated by workers, this automation process drastically reduces the cost of man-hours, abrasive consumption, and total blasting cost. It also improves the working condition of the workers since there is no dusty environment, which is a problem in the current industry practice of open blasting. Engineering Technology faculty members at Old Dominion University were funded by local shipyards to develop the device. The faculty incorporated several senior Mechanical Engineering Technology students to contribute to the design for their capstone design project. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]