Wheelabrator Group Peening and Surface Engineering Solutions

Wheelabrator Group is the world leader in the design and manufacture of surface treatment equipment. We provide automated and manual air blast, wheel blast, wet blast and vibratory finishing equipment, to prepare, clean, peen and polish components. Additionally, we also provide an expert sub-contract service for processing your components.

Aircraft engines and structures often require blasting, shot peening and mass finishing to strengthen the material, prepare the surface for further processes like plasma spray, reduce surface profiles and increase the operating life of critical components. Through our unique understanding of the precision and repeatability required, Wheelabrator Group treatment of aerospace and aircraft parts is a critical step in the manufacturing process.

Conformance to audits and specifications such as NADCAP, SAE, MIL, AMS are closely monitored and applied during the design of Wheelabrator Group equipment. Additionally, we provide the option of simple process controls in our peening systems as an alternative to equipment with more complex controls.

AIR BLAST, WHEEL BLAST, WET BLAST AND VIBRATORY FINISHING

For aerospace applications, we provide the following equipment and sub-contract services:

Fuselage / outer skins:

  • Chemical-free selective paint stripping
  • Rib peen forming, distortion correction and saturation peening

Wings:

  • Peening stringers and spars
  • Preparing surfaces prior to bonding
  • Skin peen forming and saturation peening

Landing gear / components:

  • Chemical-free depainting
  • Surface etching and texturing
  • Shot peening for fatigue life improvement and restoration
  • Blast cleaning

Engines:

  • Chemical-free depainting
  • Removal of plasma coating
  • Surface preparation
  • Shot peening
  • Blast cleaning

SHOT PEENING FOR AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS

Shot peening is used to induce residual compressive stress in the surface of components that are prone to cyclic and repetitive loads, such as landing gears, wing spars, wing ribs, stringers, engine blades, shafts and discs. This process can also reduce stress corrosion cracking.

There are two specialised processes derived from shot peening:

Shot peen forming: the natural effect of the process compresses and extends the superficial layer of the component causing it to bow. This process is used to form skins, access panels, wing flaps, fuselage sections, etc.

Correction of distortion: uses the same technique but in reverse. When a component is distorted due to machining or heat, shot peening is used to compress and stretch the local areas to achieve the required flatness. This is used for ribs, spars and other complex structural metallic parts.

WHEELABRATOR GROUP TECHNOLOGIES

Our technologies, coupled with our global experience, allow the Wheelabrator Group to service a wide range of requirements. Regardless of the size of the part to be processed or your productivity requirements, we will design and construct the appropriate surface engineering solution for your needs. Among other processes, our technologies are used to remove scale, paint, flashing, grease and burrs as well as peen, etch, polish, deburr and profile parts.

Besides aerospace applications, Wheelabrator Group technologies have been used for:

  • Autosport: shot peening stub axles
  • Automotive: cleaning / peening engines and engine components
  • Railway: cleaning railway carriages
  • Diecasting: deflashing parts
  • Manufacturing: rust and scale removal from structural steel
  • Medical: peening medical implants
  • Optical: cleaning and polishing spectacle frames
  • Mining: peening mining drill bits
  • Speciality Metals: imparting surface profiles

Equipment and sub-contract services are regularly provided to most of the key Aerospace OEMs such as Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, BF Goodrich, General Electric, Messier and Pratt & Whitney.

We hold various aerospace accreditations and supplier approvals.

Our internationally renowned products and services include Abrasive Developments, Clean-Tek, Impact Finishers, Schlick, Sisson Lehmann, Vacu-Blast, Walther Trowal and Wheelabrator.

Make an enquiry

Press Release

XAIC China Buys Wing Peening Machine from Wheelabrator Group

The Wheelabrator Group has successfully delivered and commissioned a wing-peening system for the XAIC aircraft-manufacturing company, located in X'ian, China. The new MP 20,000 machine will be mainly used for peen forming and saturation strengthening of wing-skin panels of large-sized civil airpl

White Papers

DISA and Wheelabrator Together Lowering Your Cost Per Part

Norican Group is the parent company of DISA (moulding technology), Wheelabrator (surface preparation technology) and Wheelabrator Plus (surface preparation aftermarket services).

Address
Wheelabrator Group Ltd.

41 Craven Rd

Altrincham

WA14 5HJ

United Kingdom

+44 (0) 161 928 6388 +44 (0) 161 929 0381 www.wheelabratorgroup.com Shot Peening Subcontract Solutions Aerospace at Wheelabrator Group

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Press Release

8 July 2013

Wheelabrator Impact Finishers celebrated being the first shot peening subcontract supplier in the UK to win the supply chains for the 21st century (SC21) bronze award at the SC21 Task Force Conference at the Williams F1 conference centre in Oxfordshire.

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18 June 2013

A new video from Wheelabrator presents the team and the operations of the Wheelabrator Technology Centre, Metelen, in Germany.

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28 May 2013

Wheelabrator engineers have developed a new Robot Peener to deliver three times faster process time with complete process reliability.

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6 March 2013

Wheelabrator Plus is pleased to have continued its important certification AS / EN 9100 aerospace quality management system accreditation to perform sub contract finishing of customer parts at its Birmingham site.

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21 January 2013

Wheelabrator has extended its successful Module8 concept for a new generation of wet blast machines.

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25 October 2009

Wheelabrator is delighted to add another important certification to its portfolio by recently gaining the prestigious AS /EN 9100 aerospace Quality Management System accreditation to perform sub contract finishing of customer parts at its Birmingham site. Not only has it achieved this high-status

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Peen forming by blasting with steel shot is now carried out by Dassault Aviation at their Seclin site (northern France) to correct the distortion of mechanical parts after their shapes have become altered during the manufacturing process, or to complete the shape of the Falcon 7x wing panels afte

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25 October 2009

Under the Ministry of Defence, specifically the Air Force, Atelier Industriel de l‘Aéronautique (AIA) based in Bordeaux, France is responsible for the industrial maintenance and overhaul of the Aeronefs engines. AIA had to renew their shot blasting machines as most of their equip

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25 October 2009

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25 October 2009

The Wheelabrator Technology Centre in Charleville-Mézières, France, designs, develops and manufactures a wide range of a multi-axis shot peening equipment. In addition to their renowned MP range (CNC machines), the MPR (robotised shot peening machine) range offers optimal solutions for various sh

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3 January 2008

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3 January 2008

Impact Finishers, the sub-contract division of Wheelabrator Group has passed an in-depth examination to receive the aerospace industry’s acclaimed NADCAP accreditation. The distinction applies to Impact Finishers sub-contract shot peening facilities in the UK at Slough and Coventry. La

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3 January 2008

The Wheelabrator Group Technology Centre in Charleville, France, specialises in the development and manufacturing of shot-peening machines and 'airblast precision equipment' dedicated to the aerospace industry. The range, principally CNC machines and robotic systems, offers a set of successful an

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3 January 2008

In 2002 MTU Maintenance bought surface preparation equipment from Wheelabrator Group for their new plant in Zhuhai China. The package included one shot blast machine, one shot peening machine, two wet blasting/peening machines and four hand blasting cabinets. Three years later MTU came

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3 January 2008

Stressed out aerospace companies can take to the skies after Wheelabrator Group announced it had signed an exclusive deal with high-tech French peening specialists Sonats, bringing a new range of machines to Asia. Sonats' innovative technology is similar to traditional shotpeening processes, usin

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7 June 2007

The Wheelabrator Group has successfully delivered and commissioned a wing-peening system for the XAIC aircraft-manufacturing company, located in X'ian, China. The new MP 20,000 machine will be mainly used for peen forming and saturation strengthening of wing-skin panels of large-sized civil airpl

Read more
9 August 2005

The Wheelabrator Group has successfully delivered and commissioned a wing-peening system for the XAIC aircraft-manufacturing company, located in X'ian, China. The new MP 20,000 machine will be mainly used for peen forming and saturation strengthening of wing-skin panels of large-sized civil airpl

Read more

Regional Offices

United Kingdom - Wheelabrator Group Ltd.

41 Craven Road

Altrincham

WA14 5HJ

Other

United Kingdom

+44 (0) 161 928 6388 +44 (0) 161 929 0381
China - Wheelabrator Group, Ltd.

Unit No. 1103, 11/F Futura Plaza 111-13

How Ming Street KwunTong

Kowloon

Hong Kong

China

+852 28 271 927 +852 28 776 839
WG Plus de Mexico, S de RL de CV (Wheelabrator)

Rectángulos No. 214 Parque Industrial Arco Vial

C.P. 66000 Garcia N.L.

Mexico

+52(81)1946-1000 +52 81 8385 5734
Spain - Wheelabrator Group S.L.U.

Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 133 - At B.

ES-08014 Barcelona

Spain

+34 93 421 12 66 +34 93 422 31 37
USA - Wheelabrator Group

1606 Executive Drive

LaGrange

GA 30240

United States of America

+1 706 884 6884 800 544 4144 (toll free) +1 706 884 9918
Canada - Wheelabrator Group

Burlington Technology Center

1219 Corporate Drive

Burlington

L7L 5V5

Ontario

Canada

+1 905 319 7930 800-845-8508 (toll free) +1 905 319 7561
Germany - Wheelabrator Group GmbH

Heinrich-Schlick-Strasse 2

D 48629 Metelen

Germany

+49 2556 88-0 +49 2556 88 150
Hong Kong - Wheelabrator Group Ltd.

Unit 03, 11th Floor., Futura Plaza

111-113 How Ming Street

Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR

Other

Hungary

+852 2827 1927 +852 2877 6839
Russia - Wheelabrator Group Holding Ltd

Ul. Malakhitovaya, 27, Building B

129128 Моscow

Russia

+7 499 181 55 48 +7 499 181 55 71
Poland - Wheelabrator Schlick Sp. z o.o.

Biuro Handlowe, ul. Rzymowskiego 30 lok. 318

PL-02-697 Warsaw

Poland

+48 22 651 70 91 +48 22 651 70 92
Wheelabrator Group Ltd.

41 Craven Rd

Altrincham

WA14 5HJ

United Kingdom

+44 (0) 161 928 6388 +44 (0) 161 929 0381 www.wheelabratorgroup.com Shot Peening Subcontract Solutions Aerospace at Wheelabrator Group
DISA India Ltd

5th Floor, Kushal Garden Arcade

1A Peenya Industrial Area

Peenya 2nd Phase, Bangalore 560058

India

+91 80 4020 1400 +91 80 4020 1400-1404 (Regional Contacts) +91 80 2839 1661
France - Wheelabrator Group (Technology Centre)

24, rue Camille Didier BP 39

F-08001 Charleville-Mézières Cédex

France

+33 (0) 324 33 63 21 +33 (0) 324 37 39 37
France - Wheelabrator Group

28-29 rue de Tournenfils

F-91540 Mennecy

France

+33 164 57 21 21 +33 164 57 05 59
Germany - Wheelabrator Group GmbH

Ferdinand-Porsche Str. 23

D- 51149 Köln

Other

Germany

+49(0) 2203 297 51 0 +49(0) 2203 297 51 60
Czech Republic & Slovakia

Za Balonkou 269

CZ-260 01 Príbram 1

Czech Republic

+420 318 479 111 +420 318 479 333
Belgium - CellMark Belgium (DISA and Wheelabrator Agent)

Verlorenbroodstraat 63B

BE-9820 Merelbeke

Belgium

+32 92 187 180 +32 92 33 0831
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