What is sandblasting metal for?
Sandblasting metal is one of the budget options for cleaning metal because of high working speed and low expenses compared to chemical treatment. This cleaning technology does not harm the metal and removes only the oxidation layer without affecting the overall structure of the material.
Sandblasting is the process of cold cleaning of a surface affected by abrasive materials on the metal surface. Sand is usually the abrasive material.
According to metalworking experts: the future of rust and corrosion formation on 80% depends on the quality of preparation and only on 20% depends on the quality of the powder paint.
Types of sandblasting
The abrasive composition (sand) is supplied under pressure to the metal surface using a special abrasive blasting machine. Specialist control the supply pressure to avoid subsequent damage to the surface.
Today there are several options for sandblasting:
- superficial;
- easy;
- deep;
- intermediate scale variations
The difference between deep and shallow is in the strength of the abrasive. That means that deep processing allows you to remove absolutely any contamination from the surface and superficial removes only light contamination, but does not damage the fragile surface.
What sandblasting can clean:
- secondary burn-in and dross;
- corrosion products and rust;
- residues of molding compounds and oils;
- old paint and other protective compounds.
Sandblasting technological process
The abrasive (sand) is supplied with a strong jet under high pressure. The sand jet is able to reach any narrow and arduous places due to its high kinetic energy where other tools can not. This cleaning method allows you to cope with any kind of contamination including corrosion.
Abrasive particles have up to 730 m / s. flight speed under compressed air. That is why it turns out to achieve high-quality cleaning. As a result, the surface becomes clean and rough.
The degree of cleaning can be adjusted by changing the type of abrasive materials. For running cleaning work, you can use quartz sand of various fractions, steel shot, tiny glass balls, aluminum oxide. For example, sandblasting of large metal structures occurs with use of 2-2.5 mm grain size. And sand with a fraction of 1-1.5 mm is the most effectively used for processing thin metal.
