Transmet Corporation added a 2 Second Lean program to our Ownership Thinking program. In February all employees participated in training to learn to identify and eliminate waste. The training was lead by Shaox Li an Industrial Engineer.

Transmet’s Ownership Thinking program had already started employees in the Lean Culture. Now all employees have the authority, budget and time to eliminate waste daily. This will simplify all processes and provide better products and service to our customers.

Employees are sharing their weekly successes as we visit each person in their work area and learn about their waste elimination successes. Shown below are employees attending one of the four (4) introductory meetings.

Transmet employees learning how to be lean!

Transmet Corporation is a manufacturer and supplier of Cast Shot: Cast Aluminum Shot and Cast Zinc Shot.

Key Benefits of Cast Aluminum and Cast Zinc Shot:

• Does not damage substrates or wear blast equipment
• Leave smooth, shiny surface finish on parts
• No ferrous contamination on parts
• Increased durability (cycle life) of media
• Low dust

Shot Blasting Applications

Surface Finishing of Castings: Transmet Cast Shot products are used in surface finishing applications where ferrous contamination and/or damage to parts being shot blasted is a concern.

Learn more about surface finishing applications.

Paint and Coating Removal: Transmet Cast Shot products have proven to be cleaner and less costly than other paint and coating removal methods like chemical stripping, burn off, and even shot blasting with other media.

Learn more about paint and coating removal applications.

Corrosion Removal in Remanufacturing: Transmet Cast Shot products are similar in hardness to many substrates, making it easy to clean old paint, corrosion, and residue to refresh cores to “like new” OEM appearance.

Other Applications: Transmet Cast Shot products have also found successful applications outside of shot blasting. Adding Transmet’s pure aluminum shot to cast epoxy molds increases thermal conductivity by as much as 450% versus unfilled resins.

Durability Compared to Other Blast Media

The unique casting process used to produce both Cast Aluminum Shot and Cast Zinc Shot results in high durability, long-lasting products proven to outlast alternatives. Compare both Transmet Cast Shot products to Cast Stainless Steel, Zinc Cut Wire, and Cast Steel Shot.

Shot Blasting Machine Wear

Transmet Blast Media significantly reduces damage and wear on high-wear internal components like the impeller, control cage, wheel liners, blast wheel and blades. Cabinet wear as a whole is virtually eliminated.

This blast wheel has over 17000 hours of blasting with Transmet Cast Zinc Shot without damage:

Cast Zinc Shot

Transmet Cast Zinc Shot is a soft metallic blast media for deburring, deflashing, and surface finishing of light metal castings and other non ferrous products. Cast Zinc Shot has a density closer to stainless steel, giving it the mass to remove heavier flash. The 90 HK hardness of Transmet’s ZA4 Alloy is soft enough that it will not damage delicate castings. The resulting surface finish is very bright and evenly textured. If ZA4 Alloy Cast Zinc Shot is too hard, Transmet’s HG Alloy is softer (with a hardness of 60 HK) and suitable for applications requiring a very smooth surface finish.

Learn more about Transmet Cast Zinc Shot here.

Cast Aluminum Shot

Transmet Cast Aluminum Shot blast media is gentle enough to protect delicate gasket surfaces and critical date coding information; yet aggressive enough for deburring, deflashing, and general cleaning of light metal castings and other non ferrous products. The 319 alloy is the most popular for blast cleaning. The 100 Knoop hardness (HK) of the 319 alloy shot is similar in hardness to many die cast parts. For extra delicate blasting applications the 2N alloy can be used. The hardness is 25 HK.

Learn more about Transmet Cast Aluminum Shot here.

Stainless Steel Shot vs Cast Zinc Shot

Is your company using too much stainless steel shot in the shot blasting (abrasive blasting) process? It may be time to switch your blast machines over to Transmet Cast Zinc Shot.

Transmet ZA4 Cast Zinc Shot will last more than two times (2x) longer than cast stainless steel shot in blast cleaning operations.

Switching to Cast Zinc Shot

Switching from cast stainless steel to Cast Zinc Shot lowers:

• Shot Usage
• Freight Expense
• Inventory Cost
• Amount of Dust

Brighter Castings After Shot Blasting

Switching a shot blasting process over to Transmet ZA4 Cast Zinc Shot can lead to these potential benefits:

• Clean, bright castings (see picture below)
• Lower freight expense for blast media
• Lower inventory cost
• Lower the amount of dust in your plant

Blasting magnesium die castings can be extra challenging. Steel, stainless steel, and mineral abrasive media can cause galvanic corrosion and discolor magnesium.

If you take a look at the chart of galvanic compatibility you will notice that magnesium and stainless steel are very far apart. This means that there is a high potential for corrosion.

You’ll also notice that Zinc and Magnesium are very close together. The galvanic difference is less than one, so the potential for Zinc and Magnesium to interact is very low.

Transmet will do the Test Blasting

If you are too busy to investigate ways to improve surface finish, let Transmet do the shot blasting tests for you. We know it’s difficult for even the most cost-effective companies to find time to look at improvements in their manufacturing processes.

That is why a great first step in discovering if Cast Zinc Shot or Cast Aluminum Shot will work for your shot blasting process is to have the testing done in our Media Support Lab.

Blast Media Support Lab

The shot blasting Media Support Lab is located at our plant in Columbus, Ohio. We have shot blasting equipment in-house to blast finish parts you send in at no cost.

Transmet Engineers will demonstrate the resulting surface finishes from various sizes of Cast Zinc Shot, Cast Aluminum Shot, and Stainless Steel Grit. Process development work can also be completed in order to optimize cycle times, belt speed, and other blast parameters.

Changing Blast Media

Examples of successful applications of Transmet Blast Media:

• Transmet blast media lasts longer than alternatives
• Improves surface finish (smoother, brighter) on parts
• Eliminates ferrous contamination
• Eliminates warping of blasted parts
• Less dust in your plant and to dispose of

Flash Rust on Castings

Shot blasting of aluminum castings with steel shot can leave parts looking dull and dirty. Steel shot residue trapped on parts can also cause flash rust on castings. This leaves your castings with freckles of rust on the surface and in casting crevices. In periods of high humidity these freckles can appear overnight as the casting moves through subsequent machining, painting, or assembly steps.

Transmet Blast Media

Customers that have switched to Transmet Cast Aluminum Shot or Cast Zinc Shot have reported lower show usage, lower freight expense, lower inventory cost, and less dust produced and recycled.

Shot blasting with Cast Aluminum Shot leaves a brighter finish than steel:

Before: Aluminum Casting Blasted With Steel Shot

After: Aluminum Casting Blasted With Cast Aluminum Shot

Cast Zinc Shot has the mass for flash removal and deburring, leaving a brighter surface finish:

Before: Rusty Cast Iron Wrench

After: Same Cast Iron Wrench Blasted With Cast Zinc Shot

Blasting cast iron or other ferrous materials with Cast Zinc Shot leaves a 1-micron thick coating to temporarily prevent flash rust.

Blast Media Consumption Costs

A lot more than price per pound impacts total shot blasting consumption costs. Once it is discovered that a type of blast media works well on your parts, you can begin to look at the durability of the media (how long will it last in your process), the cycle time required of the media (how long you have to blast each cycle of parts), and the many other costs involved in operating a shot blasting process (electricity, dust collection, wear on machine components, etc.).

This Company Saved $45,000/Year

Transmet started working with a company that was using zinc cut wire to remove flash and impart a smooth surface finish on die cast parts. The company had strict surface finish requirements from their end user and was having trouble meeting their specification.

The end user wanted surface finish to be improved. To improve the surface finish the company increased their blast cycle times. Longer cycles then led to bottleneck issues in the shot blasting step.

The company sent sample parts to Transmet for testing in the Media Support Lab. The parts were blasted with varying cycle times and different sizes of Cast Zinc Shot.

Our recommendation was replacing the 0.040” zinc cut wire with RSZ-500-ZA4 Cast Zinc Shot.

Replacing Zinc Cut Wire With Cast Zinc Shot

The 500-micron Cast Media is slightly smaller than the zinc cut wire, but was effective for flash removal on the castings. The smaller particles also left a much smoother surface that was well within the required specifications of the end user.

After receiving the RSZ-500-ZA4 Cast Zinc Shot, the company cleaned out their blast machine and replaced the zinc cut wire. They immediately saw an improved surface finish and reduced blast cycle times by 50%.

Shot Savings Over Time

Year 1: $47,910

Year 3: $143,730

Year 5: $239,500

Changing Blast Media

A die caster was using zinc cut wire in two identical shot blasting machines. This company had expressed interest in switching from zinc cut wire to Transmet Cast Zinc Shot multiple times, but kept delaying. This procrastination led to four years of being “busy keeping up with production” and not testing Cast Zinc Shot.

When production increases forced the die caster to consider making a capital expenditure on a new machine or sending parts out for contract work, they decided to get serious about changing blast media. They contacted Transmet and discussed ways to shorten cycle times and eliminate their bottleneck.

It was decided that the best way to do this without interrupting production was to run a side-by-side comparison in their two blast machines. One blast machine would be kept full of zinc cut wire and the other would blast with Cast Zinc Shot.

Testing continued for a month.

Results from Side-By-Side Test

One month later, the company Owner told Transmet that he wished he had ran this test sooner. The numbers revealed that not only did Transmet Cast Zinc Shot reduce shot consumption by 65%, they also found that they could load the machine with more parts and shorten cycle times by 40%!

Changing blast media was the solution to removing the production bottleneck and get castings to their customer quicker. This eliminated the need for the capital expenditure they were considering just months before.

By reducing shot consumption and shortening cycle times, making the switch from zinc cut wire to Cast Zinc Shot saved this die caster over $12,000 in the first year. If you factor in the four years this project was delayed, it could be said that their procrastination cost them almost $50,000!

Transmet has worked with companies to find the right hardness of shot for profiling of impact extrusion slugs.

It’s important to impart the correct profile without embedding on the slugs, which can be done by altering hardness and sizes of Transmet Cast Aluminum Shot.

Cast Aluminum Shot

Transmet Cast Aluminum Shot is a long-lasting, low-dust blast media that has seen successful applications in profiling aluminum impact extrusion slugs. The shot is cast from aluminum ingot melted and centrifugally formed in a proprietary process.

The resulting product is clean shot free from moisture or other contamination.

Two Hardness Ranges

Transmet Cast Aluminum Shot is available in two hardness ranges and four sizes, allowing you to tailor the shot to fit the profile you require.

2N Alloy Cast Aluminum Shot is made from P-1020 aluminum. It has a hardness of 25 Knoop. 2N shot is ideal for profiling of higher purity aluminum slugs.

319 Alloy Cast Aluminum Shot is made from 319 aluminum. The hardness is 100 Knoop. The higher hardness allows for the profiling of higher alloy aluminum slugs.

Visit the Aluminum Shot product page for more information or Contact Us.

Damage During Shot Blasting

You don’t want to beat up your castings during shot blasting; right?

Using blast media that is significantly harder than your cast parts can obliterate part numbers, date codes, and destroy other part detail that you spent time and money to create.

Non-Damaging ZA4 Cast Zinc Shot

ZA4 Alloy Cast Zinc Shot is the right hardness for shot blasting light metal cast parts (see all applications). Hardness (91 Knoop) is close to the hardness of your castings and will not damage them. This has the added benefit of reducing damage to blast equipment so that you don’t have to replace wheels, blades, and other high-wear internal components (see what a wheel running Cast Zinc Shot looks like after 16,200 hours). At a bulk density of 246 Lb/Ft3, Cast Zinc Shot is similar to steel shot and will have no problem performing in existing shot blasting equipment.

Improve Surface Finish After Shot Blasting

Along with a significant reduction in damage, shot blasting with Cast Zinc Shot improves the surface finish on cast parts. The shot leaves a smooth, bright surface finish on parts that will set you apart from your competition. Parts will not flash rust in between production steps or emerge with a dull, dusty appearance.