Tips & Advice

The abrasive metering valve on the bottom of your blast pot can make or break your profits. If you have it open too wide, you use too much abrasive and have to refill the pot sooner. Too much abrasive can also mean slower, dustier blasting. The problem is, it is very hard to accurately adjust metering valves to get the perfect mix of air and abrasive.

The MICROVALVE™ is a new valve from Blast-One which makes “fine tuning” your abrasive mix easy. Install one onto your blast pot instead of your old metering valve and you’ll immediately notice a big difference!

Very simply designed for operation, it only takes 2 bolts and 2 minutes to pull it down for maintenance.

Many blasters have found their blast pot lasts up to 3 times longer between refills using the Microvalve, without any downturn in blasting speed!

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Are you using a 3/8" (no. 6) nozzle or bigger?

Have you got one of these moisture traps (as shown above) on the side of your blast pot?
Rip it off now if you want to improve production.

These Moisture Traps may work well when they are new. However, they have a fine filter element inside that very quickly becomes clogged with any dust, oil and foreign matter. And then they become a big cause of pressure drop! You may have 100 psi coming in from the compressor, but going out of the little
Moisture Trap may be only 90 psi! This is a very common problem.

Instead, you should install a High Volume Moisture Separator, which operates without this pressure loss problem and removes more moisture. The MS 800 (shown below), works by allowing the air to expand and drop out the water, then Stainless Steel Coalescing pads remove this moisture from the air.

Simply put, the MS-800 works very effectively.
It is built for rugged site use and it doesn't drink up your pressure.

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Do you use a big nozzle to blast with, but only supply your blast
pot with air from a jack hammer hose? Or you may have 2 jack hammer hoses?

This is no good.

But, we do have good news! Overnight, you can double your blasting rate. Big nozzles need big hoses.
For any bigger than a 7/16" (no. 7) nozzle, you need a 2 inch (50mm) I.D.Bull Hose to supply air to your blast pot. Any smaller air delivery hose will simply be choking the air supply. And you lose valuable air pressure.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Watch your hose fittings. It's no good fitting a nice big Bull Hose to the pot if you've still got hose fittings or pipe fittings that are smaller in bore than your hose size. A 2" Bull Hose should be connected to a 2" outlet on the compressor and use large bore fittings right through.

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Keep a gague in your tool kit.

The nozzle pressure gauge is unarguably the most important Testing Instrument in your whole kit! Did you know that if your nozzle pressure drops from 100psi to 90psi, you'll take 15% longer to blast anything? For every 1psi under 100psi you lose 1.5% of your production efficiency. Check your system right through with this pressure testing gauge and find where the pressure losses are. Test the pressure at both ends of a long length of hose – you'll be amazed to see how much the pressure can drop!

We recommend getting two pressure test kits, to test both air pressure into your blast pot, versus the air pressure out in your blast hose, simultaneously. It can tell you a story.

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The largest cause of complaints about blasting is the DUST. It's amazing how much difference blasting
with GMA Garnet makes. First of all, let's have a look at exactly what it is …

GMA Garnet is a silica free abrasive made up of small Garnet crystals. Each crystal is heavy, sharp and
hard. When it slams into the steel at 800km/h, it doesn't smash up and break into tiny pieces like other
abrasives. This makes it very low dusting.

Each small crystal carries tremendous cleaning energy. You blast faster and cleaner than with grits twice
or three times its size, using half as much abrasive!

Although GMA Garnet costs more to buy per tonne, itnormally COSTS LESS per square metre to blast.

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An airfed Helmet is designed to protect your life. It should prevent you breathing any dust, protects your face from flying particles and offers some hard hat protection.

But, wearing a helmet on your head for hours, can really give you a head ache!

Leading Blasters are now using the extra comfortable NOVA 2000 helmet.
This helmet has excellent wide vision, combined with 20% less weight on the head and neck. By using pillow foam as head support (instead of the old 'hard hat' suspension), these are the most comfortable and quietest helmets ever used.

You'll find operators blast for longer and don't feel so worn out, when they wear
NOVA Airfed Blast Helmets.

How much air do you need to run a blast machine?

AIR CONSUMPTION (CFM) PER BLAST NOZZLE USING GARNET ABRASIVE

The table above shows the amount of air each nozzle size needs when the nozzle is new.

But what happens when the nozzle starts to wear a bit? You are going to need more and more air to maintain the same pressure at the nozzle. (i.e. after 2-3 weeks).

When you buy an air compressor for your blast package, you should allow sufficient volume for the nozzle (from the table above) plus 20 cfm for your Airfed helmet PLUS a 50% reserve to allow for nozzle wear.

(Example: A new No.7 nozzle needs 312cfm PLUS 20cfm for helmet PLUS 50% reserve of 155cfm: Minimum compressor size required = 490cfm)

Many blasters have said – "I could blast a lot faster when my nozzle was new – but now I've lost pressure …"

You need to be a mighty big man of muscle to continually hang onto some of those blast
hoses these days. By ensuring the Blast hose is 4 times the diameter of the nozzle sure helps keep the pressure up, but it becomes very hard to continually hold. We recommend you fit a 20ft (6m) SUPAFLEX Whip hose between your blast hose and nozzle. This special hose is made of high quality rubber to maintain life, but with thinner walls to make it lightweight and flexible. 'Supaflex' Whip hose has a large bore so you don't lose pressure to the nozzle. Your operator will find it easier to blast, much less tiring on the back and easier to get into tough spots.

Don't use a smaller size blast hose as a whip hose. You'll just choke the system up.

The Blast nozzle at the end of your hose has to do a lot of work. It takes air and abrasive and accelerates it to about 800km/h.

For the last 20 or so years, we have used Tungsten Carbide long Venturi nozzles. These work fine and will normally last around 300 hours but they are heavy and tend to crack easily if dropped or hit against the steel. (Many blasters tend to think nozzles are hammers!)

The NEW Superhard ULTRA NOZZLES are made from new technology Silicon Nitride and weigh only 45% of tungsten nozzles and will last for about 800 hours!

You'll notice a big difference hanging onto an ULTRA nozzle.

All Blast Machines must have remote controls (sometimes called deadman controls) which quickly stop the blasting when the control handle is released. (Many people have been injured in this Industry from poorly designed or even non-existent deadman systems.)

What have you got fitted onto your Blast pot? Does it start and stop very quickly when you want it to?

On some systems the deadman DELAY time is around 15-20 seconds before the pot stops blasting out grit (That seems like about 15 minutes if you've got trouble.)

Safety is not the only advantage of a FAST remote control system.

• It saves you time waiting for shut-down and start-up
• It can save you a lot of abrasive
• It will save you over-blasting or blasting inappropiate areas

For FASTER and SAFER control, many blasters are now fitting:

a) "COMBO VALVE" for single outlet blasters for normal blasting operations.
This is a revolutionary fast-depressurisation remote control valve that is safer and trouble-free. It has a very large exhaust port which rapidly shuts down blasting when you release the deadman handle.

b) "THOMPSON VALVE SYSTEM" for spot blasting operations or multiple outlet blasters.
This system offers almost instantaneous on/off by immediately shutting off the abrasive and air flow, leaving the blast pot pressurized. It saves a lot of time and money (and by fitting your 'Thompson Valve' with the optional 'remote abrasive cut-off switch' installed at the nozzle, you can cut off the abrasive and blow down the workplace with air only at the simple flick of a switch, anytime)

The COMBO VALVE and the THOMPSON VALVE are both FAILSAFE valves, which automatically shut off if there is an air supply problem. Very important feature on a blast pot!

If you are working over 40 metres away from your blast machine, you should seriously consider installing 12 volt electric remote controls to reduce the distance delay time.

DESIGN A SYSTEM - NOT A RIG!

The heart of your Blasting system is your blast pot. You should carefully consider the following points,
because a lot of blast pots that have been sold have been poorly engineered and can actually cost you
more money to run. How a blast pot is manufactured can affect your profitability.

Has it got Unrestricted Piping?

OK, so we now have air delivered into the pot with 2 inch Bull hose and the air abrasive mixture goes out in a 1-1/4 Blast hose. But what size pipe fittings have you got on your blast pot? Do you choke your air supply by trying to make it go through 3/4 or 1 inch fittings or pipes? A good blast pot has large bore
pipe fittings with a minimum of elbows and bends.
Get a needle pressure gauge and compare the air pressure just before the pot and then just after. You should have a maximum of 3psi pressure drop across the pot. (see page 4)
Warning: Some manufacturers' Blast pots come new with a 10 psi drop because of complicated pipe and valve configurations.
** Remember, 1psi = 1.5% performance drop **. This 10psi drop is immediately making your blasting efficiency drop by 15%! (eg: If you could blast at 30m2/hr at 100psi, your production would drop to 25m2/hr at 90psi.)
Fit valves and pipework that do not restrict the air flow.

Does it have an ergonomic design & comfortable loading height?

When you want to shift your blast pot around, you sure don't want to end up with it on top of you or end up in hospital with back problems.
Well engineered pots are designed to balance on their wheels to aid movement. They also should be the right height to load comfortably.
In this leading design, the pot doesn't put any weight on its wheels when being used. The wheels only touch the ground when it is tilted slightly.

Air compressors dramatically heat the air upon compression. Nice warm air coming into your
blast helmet on a chilly cold morning may be very comfortable.

However, during hot months, warm to hot breathing air in your blast helmet is very uncomfortable and greatly reduces your ability to work efficiently.

A Helmet Air Cooler (normally worn on the belt) can be placed in the airline immediately before the helmet, and is engineered to reduce the temperature of the incoming air by up to 30°C (50°F).

A small feature with big benefits.

What if you now take our standard time-tested level of 100 psi blasting and increase it to 125 psi? What will it do to our blasting speed? You may increase your efficiency by 38%!

What does this 38% actually mean? It means that you can blast a lot more in 4 days than you used to do in 5 days! Or, it's like having a second blaster 2 days a week for free! It also means that you can make a lot more profit.

APPROXIMATE BLASTING SPEED AT ELEVATED PRESSURES

VERY IMPORTANT

Before increasing the pressure in your blasting system, ensure all equipment – compressor, blast pot, hoses and fittings are pressure rated to the working pressure required.

Operators may need additional training to move the nozzle faster and hold the hose in such a way to minimize back thrust effect.

Many Blasters use diesel air compressors to supply blasting and breathing air
to the airfed helmet.

That same air compressor that is sucking air for breathing, is pumping out Carbon Monoxide in large volumes from the diesel engine exhaust.

If the Carbon Monoxide is sucked back into the air intake of the compressor, you can poison your blaster. (You can also poison your blaster if the compressor overheats.

Overheated compressor oil can produce carbon monoxide gas. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, deadly gas.)

For safety sake, we recommend the installation of a carbon monoxide alarm and purification system.

These systems will continuously monitor the breathing air for carbon monoxide while the purification
system will remove oils, water, particles, tastes, odours and toxic gases from the breathing air.

How does your blasting operator communicate with you when he is blasting?

Many blasters carry a hammer in their pocket and hit it on the steel (or hit the nozzle on the steel!) to give you a message [i.e. 1 hit = more abrasive, 2 hits = less abrasive, 3 hits = turn machine off!!]

Not much has changed since Red Indian smoke signal days!!

Smart blasters are fitting communication systems inside their helmets so they can speak with the pot tender or job foreman anytime.

Up to 6 operators can be connected into a system

Now your operator will tell you "just a tiny bit more Garnet, Sam, and I reckon I'll be finished this side in 10 minutes …"

A much safer system!

What do you do with all that spent abrasive at the end of the day? Do you go and dump it and go to buy some more?

Why not try recycling? If you are using a recyclable abrasive such as GMA Garnet, you could save thousands of dollars each month.

To recycle your GMAGarnet, you must remove all rubbish, stones, paint flakes, dust and fine particles from it and you then have "like new garnet".

Special Recycling Machines have been developed which simply and efficiently recycle GMA Garnet.

Put your dirty GMA Garnet in one side and cleaned GMA Garnet comes out the other!

High performance vacuum systems are also useful to remove spent GMA Garnet from tanks and confined spaces etc. and convey it to your recycling station.