What kind of abrasive to use when blasting stainless steel surfaces?
19.12.2017
Ceramic balls versus glass beads – a brief comparison
Ceramic abrasives consist of 67% ZrO2, 31% SiO2, and 3% other elements. Due to low contain of sillicon, this type of abrasive is less risky for the operators in comparison to the glass beads.
Furthermore, it also resists better in time, and can be used during 2600 cycles of wet blasting applications.
During operations, the ceramic balls crack and get transformed into smaller pieces, while the glass balls simply explode and get into dust. This allows ceramic abrasive to be reused, but with a different granulation/particle size.
In practice, the lifetime of ceramic abrasives is 8 to 10 times bigger in case of dry applications and 25 times bigger when wet applied.
As they don’t break as glass does, the final results of the blasting operation is finer and more uniform.
Another big advantage they have is that they can be applied with both turbine and compressed air installations.
In conclusion, using ceramic abrasive when treating stainless steel applications has better results because:
you get a better quality of the finish
the operation ensures the anticorrosive protection for longer periods of time
it does not scratch the surface as glass beads do
it involves lower costs because it is more efficient (it generates smaller dust emissions and it’s less offensive for the equipment)
it’s flexible and able to avoid contamination with chemical substances
