Blasting Methods
How the main abrasive blasting methods work, from grit and shot to vapor, vacuum, dry ice and soda, what each achieves and the health and waste issues involved.
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Abrasive blasting: everything you need to know
Abrasive blasting propels abrasive particles at a surface, usually with compressed air, to remove rust, mill scale and coatings and to create...
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Sandblasting vs. abrasive blasting
Sandblasting is abrasive blasting with sand as the media. Abrasive blasting is the broader term for propelling any abrasive (steel grit, mineral...
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What are the dangers of sandblasting?
Sandblasting is dangerous mainly because blasting with quartz sand produces respirable crystalline silica dust, which causes silicosis — an incurable lung disease...
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What is vapor blasting?
Vapor blasting, also called wet abrasive blasting, mixes water with an abrasive such as glass beads, aluminum oxide or crushed glass and...
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What is vacuum blasting, and how does it work?
Vacuum blasting is abrasive blasting with built-in recovery: the blast nozzle sits inside a shrouded head that seals against the surface, and...
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What is wheel blasting?
Wheel blasting, also called centrifugal or shot blasting, throws abrasive at a steel surface from a fast-rotating bladed wheel instead of using...
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Bead Blasting
Bead blasting is abrasive blasting with round media, usually soda-lime glass beads, propelled by compressed air to clean, deburr, peen or give...
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Dry ice blasting
Dry ice blasting (CO2 blasting) cleans surfaces by propelling solid CO2 pellets, typically 3 mm or smaller, in a compressed-air stream. Thermal...
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MontiPower: the alternative to blasting with copper slag
Copper slag is a glassy iron-silicate by-product of copper smelting, widely used as blasting abrasive. It cleans and profiles steel, but creates...