How to choose the optimum abrasive recovery system for your blasting hall?
26.09.2017
When opting for a recovery system, series of factors are to be considered:
- the specifics of your application
- the planed level of productivity
- the available budget
Basically, there are 2 types of recovery systems available on the market: the automatic and the semiautomatic one.
The semiautomatic solution recovers the abrasive from specific areas in the hall needing therefore the intervention of the operator who has to bring the material to these specific locations.
The automatic system collects the abrasive from all over the place, with no need of human intervention as mentioned above.
Depending on the type of application and on the abrasive material that is used, one can opt for pneumatic systems or for mechanical ones. The first are recommended when working with low-density abrasives that are highly sensitive to mechanical intervention, such as glass beads, corundum and vegetal abrasives, used for processing stainless steel, cupper, wood and plastic elements. On the other hand, the mechanical systems are recommended for metal processing works in which steel grit is used.
During blasting applications the productivity is highly influenced by the time allocated for recovering the abrasive material from the hall, which can go up to 50% of the total operating time.
For metal processing works one can for instance take into consideration the following recover capacities for each type of system in part:
0.5-0.7 m3/h – for pneumatic systems
4 m3/h – for mechanical semiautomatic systems
4 m3/h – for automatic mechanical systems
There is a clear difference between the pneumatic and the mechanical systems. When using pneumatic ones the recovery time is almost equal to the blasting time. For the mechanical options, the way in which they work influences the final results in terms of productivity. To be more specific, in case of automatic systems the recovery is permanently organized during the entire working time. The semiautomatic solution needs operating breaks during which the abrasive has to be brought to the specially designed areas where it can be collected.
The semiautomatic systems are generally used for metal processing works and the automatic ones are usually recommended to the railway industry, to producers of equipment for the petrochemical industry or in case of high capacity metal processing works.
