Blasting sand
In shot blasting machines and all other shot blasting equipments the blasting sand is used as a material. This blasting sand material helps to etch or clear the surface with the help of shot blasting machines and the shot blasting equipments. But as we all know that the blasting sand can be very hazardous to health and this is because the people in the world are making use of it at very large scale and due to this reason the people in past are really very much affected by them too.
Due to this problem the people in this world have made it sure that they will make such type of machines and equipment that will work too and will not harm the health of a person. The lungs are the major part that really got affected by the blasting sand. And so the cancer of lungs really occurs and people die soon. So to overcome this problem people started to find the better way of making the blasting equipments so they may not cause any damage to the health.
The blasting sand is now used as a material in machine along with some other material like coconut so that the air to breathe while using that equipment can be adjusted and the people may not get the lungs damaged at all. The blasting sand is also used with many other materials like the wall nut shells and powdered abrasives, copper slag and the grits too. All these things make the blasting sand to not to inhaled by the air that they will be breathing in. The blasting sand would have been very much hazardous to the health if the people keep on using it the way they used to. And if this problem remained there the people will never agree to use those equipments as they all would have been died by now.
The blasting sand with these material is such a perfect thing to use because the etching and the cleaning is done so well and the people has also realized that the lungs and all other health diseases that might have caused by them will now be cured easily as they are not damaging the lungs at high scale at all. A cough problem may be seen but nothing more than that. So the blasting sand is proved to be great in deed and material along it has made the things to go greater.
Most commonly used shot blasting cabinets
For sandblasting we use different shot blasting machine, depends on what type of sandblasting we want to do. Many bigger companies who work with sandblasting use many portable shot blasting equipment, because majority of work is on the field. But they also use few shot blasting cabinets, normaly they have them stationed in their main workshop. These shot blasting cabinets are being used for smaller items because they are normally closed during work.
This type of sandblast is a lot less hazardous for workers because shot blasting cabinets are build in a way that they suck all dust away. The side effect of this is that you are limited with size of items, if you can’t fit it into shot blasting cabinet you cannot blast it. Luckily there are many variations of shot blasting cabinets, from smaller cabinets to huge, few meters wide and high cabinets.
Different shot blasting process
There are few different types of shot blasting process. Since we don’t always want to have same final effect we have to use different types of media for that. Type of shot blasting process only varies based on what type of media is being used by shot blasting machine.
Most commonly used media for shot blasting process is sand. We can use different size of sand to get different effects. Apart sand we can also use other media such as chilled iron, garnet, glass beads or olivine.
Some media are used abrasively and are used to clean surface and remove for example paint or rust. Other media are being used in shot blasting process to just polish the surface or to chemically change the structure of item so it can be made more robust.
Sandblasting abrasive is developing
In the past for sandblasting was using only sand abrasive but now in 21. century the abrasive technique is developing so now there are a variety of different materials in use depending on job that should be done. There can be used a lighter sandblasting abrasive for minor jobs like walnut husks. For heavier tasks is suitable more aggressive sandblasting abrasive like beads. With a wide range of abrasives the jobs can be done with better results. Sifted sand was traditionally used as a main sandblasting abrasive but now is losing the importance because of the dust that is released when sand is blasted onto surface and can be toxic. Using of sand requires protective clothing. With using more soft sandblasting abrasive the more sensitive surfaces remains without damage. For thick layers is very suitable silicon carbide that is strong enough to perform even the hardest tasks.
Sandblasting equipment
Like shot blasting also sandblasting requires specialized equipment for work. And since sandblasting and shot blasting are quite alike we can use same equipment for work with both, at least vast majority of it.
Sandblasting equipment mainly consists from machine, abrasive, hoes and gun with nozzle.
When we buy new part of sandblasting equipment we buy piece that suite our needs most. Market has enough diferent models in almost all shapes and sizes so we can really use the one that is best for us.
For example, if we mainly work in firm we can use bigger machine and less hoes. With bigger machine we can normally also use bigger gun and also bigger nozzle. But we can’t do the same if we work on the field. In there mobility ist the key, so having smaller machine and other part of sandblasting equipment makes us one step ahead from competition.