How’s your image?

First impressions count, and the image people have of your company starts with the quality of your parts. It’s what they see first. It may sound superficial. But it’s important. The finish on parts you produce IS your image to the public.

Does your part look uniform? Interesting? Valuable? And will it still look good a year from now? Longer?

Dress your part for success

Parts that have the “look” of higher quality are more valuable. They are perceived as being more durable and trouble-free. They can yield higher margin. If your parts look sub-par and they under-perform, you’ll have more warranty returns. If they look terrific, it shows you care – and inspires more confidence in buyers.

When it comes to surface prep, beauty is skin deep – whether it is paint, powder coat, plating, or bare prep (an etch or peen). And you won’t have a good surface unless the surface below has been well prepared. And that’s where trouble can start.

Surfaces must be clean before coatings are applied, and the coatings have to bond well. Profiling the substrate with a minute “anchor pattern” helps bond the coating mechanically – locking it on to the tiny peaks and valleys created by blasting. Not too much, not too little.

Even when blasting with fine grit, the actual surface area increases significantly, so paint can “grab” more surface for a strong bond. Think of the topography of Switzerland vs. Kansas. The square mileage may look similar from a satellite view; but those jagged mountains have far more surface area.

Media Matters

Are tooling marks from a machining operation making your part look crude? Level and blend them with glass bead – or better, ceramic bead for a more uniform landscape. That’s a key point – more durable media like ceramic will degrade exceptionally slowly, cycle after cycle. Uniformity of media over time leads to a uniform surface of the workpiece. Cheaper media will break down quicker, and glass bead (which starts out round and “peens”) will eventually turn to grit (which etches with its worn, jagged edges) – so the mellow peened finish you had on the first shift of the workweek becomes a bland, rough texture that “fingerprints” easily, by the end of the week.

Common glass bead, ceramic bead, sharp abrasive, or non-abrasive media all have their pros and cons. Between the different shapes, hardness, and materials they are made from, there are hundreds of combinations to choose from. (That's why we stock over 200,000# of media of all sorts!) An expert can help you make the right choice for your project.

Finish First: Equipment tips for better blasting

Equipment is another culprit in inconsistent results. Worn abrasives need to have broken components subtracted from the working mix of media – or the finish will degrade as media becomes pulverized. Pulling out undersized media particles and dust is essential, and inexpensive machines are usually not equipped to handle this task. However, we can upgrade some machines with cyclonic separators. The best of these “reclaimers” are tunable, and built of materials that withstand the rigor of handling a continuous stream of oftentimes sharp, hard abrasives.

Blast nozzles can also affect surface quality. Today’s blast nozzle technology offers a wide array of choices, from nozzles made from materials that keep their shape, to ones that “throw” more efficiently, to those that cover wide areas with little or no “hot spot.” An inexpensive upgrade bring measurable results.

Most of my customers have an idea of what blast finishing machines should do, but most are not up to speed on the wide variety of equipment available. Today’s options include air-powered blasting, mechanical wheels that throw the media (and not just steel shot anymore!), abrasives mixed into a slurry (with a host of beneficial results), even micro-blasting using very tiny nozzles. Blast cabinets, walk-in rooms, automation, robots, vacuum-blasters, blasters using sponge media or dry ice… the list is truly extensive.

Robotic blasting and automated blasting can help isolate the variables that can inadvertently be introduced by operator technique variation. For instance, we have found that profiles can vary by more than 250%, even with the same worker using the same media, if there’s inconsistent manipulation of the blast nozzle.

One great way to achieve blast quality and uniformity is to enlist the resources of a well-equipped blast lab – and Dawson-Macdonald has the best lab in New England. We also have access to specialty labs where we can perform demonstrations on your part using a robot (to hold the part or the nozzle), or slurry. It’s a wide blasting world. Explore it.

And if you can’t afford to automate your finishing process, our experts can work with you directly. We educate your workforce and help iron out problems. That alone can be invaluable. To catch issues before they arise, Dawson-Macdonald also offers expert preventive maintenance – keeping your machinery in top form, for top performance.

Ready to upgrade your image? We’re ready to help. Contact us.