Peening. Shot Peening is very similar to the processes of blast cleaning. The primary difference is that the grit is not used in shot peening. Peening reduces the tensile stress in metal parts increasing the fatigue limit and reduces stress corrosion cracking. Additional application for shot peening include work hardening through cold work to improve wear characteristics, closing of porosity, improving resistance, intergranulor corrosion, straightening of distorted parts, surface texturing and testing the bond strength of coating.