Blasting media additives: Blast & degrease metal

Blasting and degreasing in a single operation

Blasting with metallic abrasives is a standard process in the surface treatment of metals, e.g. for surface preparation for corrosion protection coatings, but also for roughening and hardening surfaces.

The PantaTec process protects the actual blasting processes and their results from difficulties that can disrupt and negatively influence them from the outset:

Introduction of oily and greasy auxiliary materials on workpieces.

Residues of oily additives and lubricants from previous production processes disrupt wettability and thus make it impossible to produce durable corrosion protection coatings on these surfaces. The workpieces must therefore be thoroughly cleaned.

But conventional blasting cannot remove oils and greases. The substances remain in the process. Wet chemical pre-treatment on an industrial scale or, in the simplest case, washing with a high-pressure cleaner ("Kärcher") are the second choice here.

The PantaTec process solves the problem by combining degreasing with the actual blasting process: in other words, blasting and degreasing in a single operation. In this dry cleaning process, a powdered degreasing additive is simply and automatically mixed into the abrasive. It removes oil and grease directly from the metallic surfaces of the workpieces, from the abrasive and from the shot blast plant during the blasting process.

In this way, scale, dirt, oxide layers, rust, etc. are removed and the required surface cleanliness of oil and grease is achieved at the same time. The result is good wettability of the blasted surfaces for coating materials - the basis for high adhesive strength and therefore the durability of the coating.

Oils and grease are bound to the additive particles and removed from the process via the conventional dust extraction, air separation and filter unit.

Depending on the requirements, the achievable degree of purity can be defined, stable and repeatable. The key parameters are the concentration of the additive in the operating mixture and the blasting coverage on the component surfaces.

From a technical point of view, this process can achieve a degree of purity of the metal surfaces that even allows full-surface wetting with water. This corresponds to a surface tension of approx. 70 mN/m.

Both the PantaTec process itself and the automatic dosing unit can be integrated into practically all shot blast plants, both for new plants and as a retro-fit. This is independent of the manufacturer of the shot blast plant.