Many people are gravitating to wet abrasive blasting due to the significant benefit of being able to control the dust from abrasive blasting. However, while adopting wet abrasive blasting, they confuse wet blasting, water injection blasting and vapour abrasive blasting..
Wet blasting and water injection blasting are archaic forms of wet abrasive blasting and have many shortcomings compared to vapour blasting.
The technology used in wet blasting is basic and primitive and suited to ‘DIY’ operators rather than professional blasters. There are two types of wet blasting nozzles
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Water Injection Nozzle (WIN)
The Win nozzle has a water spray that dampens the dry abrasive media as it leaves the nozzle
Halo Nozzle (Water Ring)
The Halo nozzle sprays a curtain of water on the surface surrounding the abrasive blast. It dampens the dust after impact.
Both the WIN Nozzle and the Water Ring nozzles offer the operator little control over the water flow and air pressure.
Vapour Abrasive Blaster
On the other hand Vapour Abrasive Blasters use a mixture of water and media within the blast pot. The delivery of this mix is what differentiates the vapour blasters and wet blasters. Vapor Blasters use water pressure within the pot to force the mix out and into the blast hose where it is then carried out to the nozzle by air pressure. Vapor Blasters can be used at lower pressures since the water pressure is what is forcing the mix out of the pot.
Advantages of Vapour Blasting over Wet Blasting
- Vapour Abrasive Blasters afford fine control over the air pressure and water/abrasive mixture, allowing for blasting of a wider range of surfaces
- Vapour Blasting uses far less abrasive media
- Less water used means less run off and less of a slurry mess to clean up
- Surface is not drenched in water and stuck with abrasive
- Much less prone to flash rusting/tea staining if used with a rust inhibitor
- The operator enjoys much better visibility as heavy PPE is not required as dry blasting
- Application of protective coatings is much more effective and long lasting as the surface is clean of residual abrasive and does not have the film of rust inhibitor that is left over in wet blasting.
The RapidBlast™ Vapour Blasting equipment offers the best leading edge technology in Vapour Blasting that is more effective, efficient and environmentally friendly.