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Sponge Blasting
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Airblast
Sponge Media Delivery Systems are an example of our dedication
to pushing forward the boundaries and capabilities of abrasive
cleaning machinery. Designed to add speed and decrease dust
in the removal of paint and other coatings when compared with
other more traditional methods. This range of machinery when
combined with an appropriate Sponge Media will perform a varied
range of duties i.e aggressive blast cleaning and surface
preparation, selective striping of individual layers of coatings
from delicate substrates or surface cleaning/decontamination
with no damage to the substrate. Thus making this process
of interest to a miriad of consumers in all sectors of industry
including those application such as deburing, polishing, forming
and other surface preparation specifications heretofore unattainable
or unsatisfactory using traditional technology. |
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Media is poured into a Blast Feed Unit where it is mechanically
stirred and fed into a rotating screw-auger port at the bottom
of the pot. The auger entrains the sponge in a variable pressure
air stream – and the air-media mix flows through a hose and
venturi blast nozzle to impact the work surface at 15 to 100
mtrs (50 to 325 ft.) per second depending on the blast pressure.
On impact with the surface the sponge particles compress and
slide across the surface producing a scrubbing and cleaning
action, more similar to a sanding effect eliminating the more
harsh and dusty negative effects associated with conventional
grit blasting. The abrasive particles remove the paint coating
or corrosion products and the media rebounds at quite low
velocity as the media converts the majority of its energy
into work at the surface.
For most projects a tarpaulin or light plastic sheeting around
the work area will contain media for pick-up and recycling.
The SpongeBlast media will generate less than 10% of the airborne
dust levels normally experienced with conventional grit blasting
medias. This is a key Health and Safety benefit when removing
lead and chromate paints. The Media Feed Unit requires a 7
bar (100 psi) air supply – capable of supplying clean dry
air at 6 to 10m3/min (210 to 353 cfm). |
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For steel substrates, select SpongeBlast media with 30 or
16 screen Alox abrasives and you have a fast-cutting low-dust
depainting and surface preparation tool. This type of media
can give SP7 to SP5, NACE 4 to NACE 1, (Sa1 to Sa3), surface
quality with profiles from 0 to 4+mils, (0 to 75+ microns).
SpongeBlast media is ideal for railway rolling stock maintenance,
oil and gas pipeline depainting and
inspection projects, shipyard repair work, nuclear decontamination
and general industrial coating and rust removal. The media
also has numerous applications in civil engineering contracts
where it is used to clean off process stains, graffiti and
environmental pollution and soot from concrete buildings,
bridges and other structures, resulting in an excellent method
for building façade and or interior refurbishing. |
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above illustrates surface top coat scuffing of individual
coatings and stripping back to fuselage. |
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Sponge blast media can typically be recycled 8 – 15 times
depending on the blast pressure, surface geometry, and contaminant
levels. To maintain the system’s low-dust benefits, media
must always be cleaned before reuse either by our airwash
or mechanical vibration equipment. For maximum cutting speed,
Airblast recommends that used sponge blast media is topped
off with new media each cycle.
Sponge Blast media consists of aluminium oxide (Alox) abrasive
particles embedded in closed-cell urethane sponge granules
– a combination that ensures low-dust blast cleaning operations.
This media, with Alox 320 or 220 screen size abrasives,
is used by aircraft OEM’s and leading maintenance specialists
to remove paint coatings, layer-by-layer, without damaging
sensitive metallic or composite substrates. For depainting
transmission critical Radomes, we recommend Sponge Blast
media containing fine grade Garnet abrasives.
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