BACKGROUND
Since 1891, Union Tank Car Company, provides high-quality equipment and comprehensive tank car services to our customers throughout North America. They needed a high production blast room for refurbishment of railcars, focusing on lining and coating.
UTLX facility prior to blast room installation
Tank car linings serve two main functions:
To protect the commodity from contamination by the base metal of the tank or hopper car
To protect the commodity from contamination by the base metal of the tank or hopper car
UTLX had an aging wheel machine at one of their facilities in Arkansas that needed to dramatically increase its production, but couldn’t afford to be out of service for a long time.
SOLUTION
BlastOne worked with UTLX to replace the old wheel machine—a now out-of-date way of performing surface preparation on railcars—with a new robotic blast room inside the existing facility.
While waiting for the robotic components to arrive, we built the blast room initially for manual blasting. This limited production downtime and had temporary access platforms for operators. Later, we removed these platforms once the robotic components were in operation.
Underfloor Pit Construction process
Rendering Blueprint of Blast Booth Installation
RESULTS
Union Tank Car (UTLX) now has a state-of-the-art robotic blasting facility which gives them a substantial competitive advantage. The cycle time and subsequent cost reduction gives them excellent return on investment, and the quality and consistency of the blast process provide further key advantages.
Blast room outfitted with temporary access platforms for manual blasting
Installation of robotics into blast booth
Large high efficiency dust collectors installed outdoors
Installed, blast-ready robot
Blast room under floor recovery system assembly in progress
Interior of blast room with built-in robotic blasting unit
Stair case leading up to the temporary access platform
Completed railcar robotic blasting job
Complete Blast Room ready for action, prior to robot installation
KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING
5 CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF A BLAST ROOM
4 WAYS TO CURE PAINT FASTER
THE PROPER EQUIPMENT FOR EACH COATING
CASE STUDIES
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