Sandblasting is an amazing process, especially when it comes to the cleaning and preparation of different projects involving metal. Useful for removing rust, cleaning, finishing, etching, and treating metal, sandblasting can really bring out the beauty of metal while helping it last longer. But how does sandblasting achieve its effects? Here’s how the process of sandblasting metal works and how it can help you and your goals.
Air and Sand
To begin with, sandblasting is basically a combination of two elements: air and sand. It’s more complicated than that, of course, but those are the two main constituents of the process. Sandblasting first came into existence sometime during the 19th century. But Benjamin Chew Tilghman filed the earliest patent for a sandblasting device on October 18, 1870. Tilghman, who served in the Civil War as a brigadier general in the Union Troops, noted the pitting and etching effects of sand that the wind blew against glass windowpanes. This led to him developing the sandblasting process for sharpening, engraving, cleaning, and more—duties the process continues to serve to this day. It turned out that air and sand made a powerful mixture!
How It Works
Modern sandblasting has fine-tuned many of Tilghman’s ideas, creating more efficient machinery with a wider variety of uses. For one thing, sand isn’t the only thing sandblasters use anymore. It’s more accurate to call the modern process abrasive blasting. It uses the power of compressed air to fire any number of materials at a surface to smoothen it, score it, or remove waste. A sandblaster can fire sand, baking soda, crushed walnut shells, garnet, steel grit, powdered glass, and glass and plastic beads at a surface by a sandblaster. Under repeated high-intensity “attacks” from the substances above, the surface becomes cleaner, smoother, and shinier.
What It Does for Metal
Here’s how the process of sandblasting metal works. In basic cleaning processes, sandblasting is ideal for stripping away rust and corrosion and taking up every inch of old paint across a metal surface. It’s far cleaner and more thorough than chemical processes and is less injurious to the surrounding environment. And with proper PPE, it can’t harm the individual doing the cleaning. Sandblasting also prepares the surface better for painting, powder coating, and so forth because it gives the coating a better, cleaner surface to stick to. Metal sandblasting is also an incredibly quick process, taking only minutes to do its work compared to scraping processes involving paint strippers and other chemical processes.
If you need any metal or other sandblasting projects, contact us to set up a consultation. We offer sandblasting jobs as well as powder coating. We look forward to hearing from you!