Does Abrasive Last Longer in a Vapor Honing Machine

What happens when abrasive makes direct contact during the blasting process? There are only two things that could happen to it. One, it breaks into smaller pieces. Two, it becomes airborne. In this video, I will explain which system the abrasive lasts longer in and I will identify a few key points.

Dry Blasting

First off, in a dry blast machine, the abrasives are propelled by compressed air towards the surface of the object at a high velocity. Upon impact, it will remove unnecessary contaminates on the surface. If you were to watch the video closely, you can see pieces of glass shattering away. The abrasives in a dry blast system will break into many pieces and the compressed air pushes it into the air causing it to be airborne. This example is the cause of dust. Imagine many weightless pieces of glass becoming airborne. This is the reason why Europe and many countries have banned sandblasting.

Wet Blasting

As for the wet blasting machine, water is added to the combination of abrasive and compressed air. These media will then be mixed, and the media is propelled to the surface of the object. Upon impact, the water cushions the abrasives allowing them to last longer. If you were to watch the video closely again, you can see the cushioning effect. With closer examination of the video, you can see that the cup broke less, and the water traps the broken piece of glass from being airborne. To put it in microscopic view, if each size of water droplets was the same size of each grain of abrasive; once it shatters into a smaller piece the abrasive will travel with the water making it unable to be airborne.

To summarize this, the life of abrasive in a dry blast system will be shorter than in a wet blast system. With dry blasting, it will break faster because there is no other element helping the abrasive. Whereas wet blasting has the addition of water to help cushion it. To answer the question “Does abrasive last longer in a Vapor Honing Machine?” Yes, any kind of abrasive will last 3 or more times longer and the blasting process is dustless.

Tip of The Day

Make more money with wet blasting by spending less money on consumables, such as the abrasives.

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