AluDran & AluGran

Shot blasting for light metal casting

Wire grain (AluDran) or granulate (AluGran), the choice is yours.

 

AluDran’s & AluGran’s extraordinarily good properties are the result of the use of special aluminium alloys and a special production process.

This shot is characterized by its hardness, strength and long life as well as the very low heavy metal proportion of copper and zinc.

Applications:

  • Consolidation and compacting of the surface
  • Little deformation in blasting, even with thin-walled castings
  • Reduction in corrodibility of the castings
  • Lower costs for disposal of the resultant sludge and dusts, as the proportion of heavy metals is lower
  • Preservation of the shot blasting equipment, as aluminium shot is less abrasive than many other types of shot
  • Preservation of thr CNC machines, as any remaining particles of AluDran & AluGran can be machined without problems
  • Pressure die-castings and gravity die-castings can be given the noble apperance of sand castings
 

Material

AluDran‘ & AluGran’s special alloy has a structure which is consolidated as a result of cold forming. This structure makes the shot hard and tough and therefore not brittle.

In shot blasting tests AluDran & AluGran achieved a superior lifetime compared with traditional cast aluminium shot (see table).

As AluDran & AluGran is made from aluminium, electric potentials between your light metal castings and the shot particles which have penetrated their surfaces are avoided. The corrodibility of your castings is less than when using shot made of lower quality metals, such as chrome-nickel shot or cast aluminium shot.

AluDran & AluGran is often the only shot which can be used on light metal castings that are extremely susceptible to corrosion, e.g. transverse links in automotive construction.

Many castings are mechanically processed on CNC machines after the shot blasting process. Any AluDran & AluGran particles in the castings can be machined without problems.

 

Production

The AluGran production process involves a mechanical comminution and forming operation.

As if a centrifugal blasting machine, pieces of the special aluminium alloy are repeatedly thrown against baffle plates. Spherical to round grains are produced in this cold forming process.

AluGran is ready for use when it is poured into your blasting machine – a high initial blasting waste is eliminated.

For particularly low-distortion blasting of thin-walled parts, you can order AluGran made of a soft alloy in the W variant as 'soft'.

AluDran is manufactured from drawn wires that are cut precisely to the length of their diameters.

This produces small cylindrical particles that are almost completely uniform.

If necessary, the particles can be rounded to form spheres of a single grain size.

As we do not use a smelting process, we reduce emissions and energy consumption.
Besides this environmental advantage, and in addition to the smaller proportion of heavy metals, the resulting low price is one of the most important arguments in favour of Alugran.

 

 

Type

Size in mm

Alloy

AluDran

08

0,8

6xxx

 

10

1,0

5xxx

 

12

1,2

 

 

15

1,5

 

       

AluGran H

0204

0,2-0,4

5xxx

 

0408

0,4-0,8

 

 

0510

0,5-1,0

 

 

0815

0,8-1,5

 

 

1020

1,0-2,0

 

 

1525

1,5-2,5

 

       

AluGran W

same

but

1xxx