Seven Sins of Blasting

Ready for Sandblast! Seven Tips for Better Blasting

BlastPrep.com is dedicated to informing the industry about best practices for blast processes of all descriptions. So let's look at what I have come to believe are seven of blasting's pitfalls.

- With best regards to the New England Surface Finishers who are looking to Reboot Blasting.

Buying the Cheapest Media. In the end, all media costs about the same. “Expensive” media lasts longest and gives the most uniform results, day in and day out. Cheap media costs a lot in shipping and disposal; makes for poor operator visibility, gives more erratic finishes, and robs time that you’ll never have back. Poor media selection is a cardinal sin.
Blasting Non-Stop. If you’re blasting all day long, question if your facility is optimized. You're in purgatory, and haven't found out that there are better methods. If you have two people doing the same blasting task, yeah… you can do better and save a ton of money.
Ignoring Your Workers. Labor can make it or break it. Train and retrain your workers. Let them know that blast prep is key to good end results – and good finishes make for higher margins. They're on your team, it is an important job, and they should know how to do great, consistent, fast blasting! Blasting without positive attention or reward (or good equipment) is just hell.
Running a Dirty Operation Dust Sucks! (Also refer to item #1 above.) Dust laden media performs poorly. Visibility is poor. Maintenance is high. Results are inconsistent. Health suffers. Your shop looks awful – what would your Mother say?! So, keep the "working mix" of media consistently sized through (ahem) good training, the use of durable abrasives and the use of a good, tunable abrasive reclaimer. Fire and brimstone have nothing on dust.
Use Sub-Par Equipment. It’ll probably have a good system for extracting dust. It’ll perform better, work faster, and can be easier to maintain. Bottlenecks are for beer bottles, not production. Running with bad equipment is like going to hell in a hand-basket, slowly.
Using the Wrong Equipment. Equip your blast machine for the task. For instance, don’t ask a machine using aluminum oxide to run reliably without wear protection. That means rubber, boron carbide, and a good dust collection system. Take into account operator ergonomics and material handling considerations. And if your machine shows practically no sign of wear, you probably blasting with a lackadaisical nozzle. Upgrade! Hey, it's abrasive blasting guys - hard blasting should kick butt! It's a sin not to go hell bent for leather.
Failing to do Maintenance. Blasting machines wear from the inside out, where it is hard to detect. That can make them a maintenance nightmare – and often unsafe. The solution is good management through periodic Preventive Maintenance. (And, c’mon, allow adequate time for PM.) Keep a stock of parts known to wear, and upgrade to a better grade of wear parts (for instance boron carbide blast nozzles). Reclaimers used with grit deserve top quality linings – or else! If you haven't figured out #7 on your own - you are experiencing downtime and probably at the worst possible moment. When you can't deliver on time, you know where your customer will tell you to go...