Types of Abrasive Blasting Materials

      Talking about abrasive blasting, one of the most important things needs to consider is what type of abrasive blasting materials should workers use while blasting. The decision of choosing which abrasive blasting materials depends on many different factors, such as job specifications, working environment, budget, and worker health.

1.     Silicon Carbide

Silicon carbide abrasive is one of the most common used blasting materials. It is also one of the hardest abrasives. The hardness for silicon carbide is between 9 and 9.5. Therefore, it can be used to engrave glass, metal, and other hard materials. If you want to remove the rust, or other paintings on a surface, you could choose silicon carbide abrasive. Besides its hardness, the cost of silicon carbide is not as expensive as others. This is also why silicon carbide abrasive is commonly used in abrasive blasting.

2.     Garnet

Garnet is a hard mineral. The hardness for garnet is around 7 and 8. Compare to other blasting materials. Garnet is more durable, and it creates less dust compares to others. So, it causes less breath-in problems for workers. The garnet can be used in both wet blasting and dry blasting. Moreover, garnet is recyclable.

3.     Coal Slag

Coal slag is also one of the common materials people like to use. The reason people like to choose coal slag is because it’s high efficiency and low cost. Coal slag is a good choice if you want to get job done quickly and fast-cutting something. In addition, coal slag can also be recycled.

4.     Crushed Glass

The crushed glass blast media is often made from recycled beer and wine bottle. Therefore, it is not recyclable. This media is often used for outdoor dry blasting. And the hardness for crushed glass is around 5 and 6.

5.     Walnut Shells

The name of this abrasive blast media can tell this material is environmental-friendly. The organic abrasive like walnut shells is normally cheaper to dispose compares to other abrasive media. And the hardness for walnut shells is 4-5. So, it can be used on surfaces without leaving and damages on it. This is a soft blasting media people can choose.

6.     Corn Cobs

Another organic media is corn cobs. The hardness for corn cobs is even less than walnut shells. It is around 4. If people want to find a blasting media for wood surfaces, corn cobs would be a great choice.

7.     Peach Pits

The third organic media is peach pits. All organic blasting Medias leave very less dust. And they will not harm the surface while constructing. So, people can choose peach pits to strip things off from surfaces.

There are so many blasting materials, and each of them has their own pros and cons. This article only lists 7 common used ones. In conclusion, when choose your blasting materials, consider if the abrasive medias would damage your surface, how hard the surface is, and the budget you have for abrasive blasting materials.

No matter which abrasive media you choose, you are always going to need blasting nozzles. BSTEC provide all types and sizes blasting nozzles for you to choose.