Airblast-Abrasives AIRBLAST

AIRBLAST

Surface Treatment Solutions



Index

Page 1 Introduction

Page 2 High carbon steel abrasives - production

Page 3 High carbon steel shot & grit

Page 4 Metallic abrasives

- Low carbon steel shot
- Chilled iron grit
- Stainless steel abrasives
- Cut wire

Page 5 Non-metallic abrasives

- Aluminium oxide
- Glass beads
- Garnet
- Aluminium silicate

Printed in the Netherlands.

The right is reserved to make changes at any time without notice.




Introduction AIRBLAST

Airblast-Abrasives

Airblast-Abrasives fulfils in the requirements for metallic and non-metallic abrasives. Our dedicated team is
available to assist our customers in selecting the right abrasives and analysing the working mix and production
process in order to maximise efficiency. All our abrasives are subject to a rigorous quality control to ensure supply
of the best available abrasives in its class. The scope of supply of Airblast-Abrasives is:

Metallic Abrasives Non Metallic Abrasives

● High carbon steel grit ● Brown fused alumina
● High carbon steel shot ● White fused alumina
● Low carbon steel shot ● Glass beads
● Chilled iron grit ● Garnet
● Stainless steel shot ● Aluminium silicate
● Stainless steel cut wire
● Carbon steel cut wire
● Aluminium cut wire
● Zinc cut wire

Airblast Group

For more than 40 years Airblast has been the world leader in providing blasting and painting solutions to the
anticorrosion industries. With an unparalleled network of offices around the world Airblast works closely with our
customers and distribution partners providing tried and tested equipment and consumables as well as developing
customized solutions for specific applications.

Airblast is dedicated to maintain a profitable organization on a long term basis through ethically and morally sound
business practices. By investing in the long term future of our organization, and those with whom we conduct
business, Airblast believes that we can share sustained mutual success.

Our manufacturing facilities in Europe and the Far East produce fit for purpose quality products with region
specific certification. All Airblast equipment and abrasives are manufactured according to the highest relevant safety
standards and passes our rigorous quality controls before dispatch.

Mindful of the environmental responsibilities faced by our generation Airblast is committed to a programme of
research and development into technologies facilitating zero emission blasting and painting along with an education
programme promoting planet friendly operations.

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High Carbon Steel Abrasives

Production
Airblast-Abrasives has two purpose built production facilities for the production of High Carbon Steel Abrasives covering
an area of 4.000 m². The plant is using state of the art technology to fabricate the high quality product:

• Centrifugalizing process instead of high water jet streams to atomize the liquid steel into more spherical and
uniform particles.
• A second heat quenching gives the abrasive a more uniform chemical and internal structure, making the abrasive
less brittle.
• Air quenching instead of water quenching results in fewer micro cracks and thus a better durability of the abrasive.

High carbon steel grit and shot is produced by atomization of molten steel followed by a series of thermal and
mechanical treatments in order to give the product the desired characteristics.

1. Careful selection of the scrap.

2. Melting the scrap in the electric induction furnace, adding the necessary Ferro alloys to adjust the composition.
3. Drying.
4. Atomization by centrifugalizing process to get a uniformly shaped grain and an increased density.
5. Screening to get the standard grain sizes.
6. Spiralling to remove the irregular shaped shot.
7. Quenching to optimise the microstructure and avoid stress cracks.
8. Tempering to get the right hardness.
9. Second screening to ensure the correct grain sizes.
10. Packaging.

Before, during and after the process, our in-house quality control department continuously verifies the consistency and
the quality of our abrasives. Our Research and Development laboratory constantly strive to improve the key
performance factors of the abrasive and optimise the production process.

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High Carbon Steel Abrasives AIRBLAST

High Carbon Steel Shot
High carbon steel shot is used in the majority of the wheel blast applications and creates a dimpled, peened surface.
Only the shot’s skin suffers from the impact and very thin flakes will progressively part from the shot, which itself
stays round throughout its life cycle. Our steel shot is very durable with high resistance to impact fatigue, giving it
an effective and quick cleaning rate.
Our high carbon steel shot is used in various applications like; desanding, descaling, cleaning, shot peening etc..
The centrifugal atomization process and double heat treatment at the Airblast plant, as well as continues quality
control measures, ensures the shot to be of the highest quality.

High Carbon Steel Grit

High carbon steel grit produces an etched or angular surface profile and is well suited for cleaning, descaling, etching
and desanding applications. Our high quality steel grit has a long service life and is used in wheel blast machines
and blast rooms.

High Carbon Steel Grit GP has the lowest hardness in the range of 42 to 52 HRC and is also revered to as angular
shot, because the grit will get a round shape during its lifetime. It is mainly used in wheel blast machines and it has
good results in the foundry industry because it cleans faster with little increase in maintenance costs and machine
parts wear. GP is used for cleaning, descaling and desanding.

High Carbon Steel Grit GL has a medium hardness in the range 53 to 60 HRC. It is mainly used in wheel blast
machines and is particularly suited to heavy descaling and surface preparation requirements. Although GL is of
medium hardness, it also loses its angular shape during shot blasting.

High Carbon Steel Grit GH. The maximum hardness ranging from 60 to 64 HRC. It stays angular in the operating
mix and is therefore ideally suited for surface etching requirements. GH is used in blast rooms for quick cleaning
and to achieve an anchor profile prior to coating.

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Metallic abrasives

Low Carbon Steel Shot

Low carbon steel shot has a lower hardness than high carbon steel shot. Because of its microstructure it resist impact
well until the moment it suddenly scatters and turns into dust. It is often used for flash descaling, but the coverage of
low carbon shot is not favourable because there are virtually no smaller particles in the operating mix. Since low
carbon steel shot is softer it not possible to crush it into grit, which is therefore not available.

Chilled Iron
Chilled iron is a hard abrasive making it suitable for etching purposes, but less resistant to impact. During the blasting
process chilled iron breaks at an angle producing a permanent mixture of sharp grit with the ability to roughen up the
hardest surface. Chilled iron has excellent cleaning properties, but with a considerable lower life cycle then cast steel
abrasives. Chilled iron is suitable to be used in blast rooms for quick cleaning and edging but shouldn’t be used in
wheelblast machines, since it wears its parts quickly.

Stainless Steel Abrasives

Companies casting or fabricating stainless aluminium or light alloy parts can safely use stainless steel abrasives, since
it leaves no ferrous residue contamination and it achieves effective blasting performances. Stainless steel abrasives are
very durable and are being used for deburring, blast cleaning and surface finishing.

Cut Wire
Cut wire pallets are made of wire that is cut in short sections.
Unconditioned carbon steel cut wire is used for blast cleaning operations. The cut wire is very aggressive and therefor
quite effective in heavy duty operations, but wear more on wheel blast machine parts. Conditioned steel cut wire is
used in shot peening applications where high carbon steel shot doesn’t provide a stable enough operation mix.
Stainless steel cut wire is used for cleaning and peening applications where ferrous contamination can’t be tolerated.
It produces a very bright surface, maintains its shape longer then cast abrasives and it produces a dust free surface.
Stainless steel cut wire is available as cut or conditioned.
Aluminium cut wire shot is used for the blast cleaning, surface finishing and deburring of mainly aluminium castings
and forgings. It is very durable and leaves no ferrous residue on the substrate.

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Non-metallic abrasives AIRBLAST

Aluminium Oxide
Aluminium oxide is manufactured by fusing bauxite; coke and iron in an electric furnace at very high temperatures.
Airblast brown fused alumina and white fused alumina available that contain very low levels of free iron.
Aluminium oxide is a recyclable abrasive mainly used in cabinets and blast rooms. Because of its low iron content,
alumina is often used in blasting operations where iron contamination on the non-ferrous metal substrate is not
allowed. Aluminium oxide is a reusable abrasives that is very hard and sharp and has an effective and brutal abrasion.

Glass Beads
Our glass beads are manufactured from high-grade, specially designed glass to reduce wear and fracture. The parti-
cles are heat treated into round balls to equalise stress and resist fracture.
Glass beads contain no free iron to cause corrosion on non-ferrous surfaces, therefor glass beads are very suitable to
use on all types of metals. Since it doesn’t create an anchor profile, it is mainly used to clean a substrate without
roughening it or to polish the surface. Glass beads can be reused and are mainly used in blast rooms and blast cabinets.

Garnet
Garnet is a natural mineral abrasive which is irregularly shaped with polished edges, it contains no heavy materials
and has a low level of free silica. Because garnet is very heavy and hard for a mineral abrasive it accomplishes a
fast cleaning rate. It is being used to remove rust, mill scale, old coatings and to clean buildings. Some of the
advantages of garnet are; fast cleaning, relatively low dust generation (as compared to copper- or coal slag),
environmental friendly and reusability.

Aluminium Silicate
Also known as coal slag is a dispensable abrasive which is a by-product of coal fired electric power generation plants.
This abrasive generates less dust than copper slag and is mainly used in open blasting operations in the oil- and
shipyard industry.

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THE NETHERLANDS
Airblast B.V. - Corporate Headquarters
P.O. Box 1075
1700 BB Heerhugowaard
Tel. : + 31 72 5718002
Fax : + 31 72 5714340
Email : info@airblast.com
Webil : www.airblast.com
Airblast-Abrasives B.V.
Postbus 9334
1800 GH Alkmaar
Tel. : + 31 72 5715569
Fax : + 31 72 5714340
Email: info@airblast-abrasives.com
Web : www.airblast-abrasives.com
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Airblast Middle East LLC
P.O. Box 33419
Dubai
Tel. : + 971 4 3242776
Fax : + 971 4 3242778
Email : airblast@emirates.net.ae
SAUDI ARABIA
Airblast Saudi Trading & Industrial Est.
P.O. Box 30476
Al-Khobar 31952 HDFC Bank Building, Lakdi Ka Pul
Tel. : + 966 3 8473178
Fax : + 966 3 8471430
Email : info@airblast.com.sa
QATAR
Airblast Qatar WLL
P.O. Box 47044
Wakra
Tel : + 974 4 463 1043 / 1074
Fax : + 974 4 463 1154
Email : info@airblast.com.qa
Airblast Group
SINGAPORE AUSTRALIA
Asia Airblast Pte Ltd. Airblast Australia (Perth)
No. 55 Tuas Avenue 1 22 Irvine St
Singapore 639503 Bayswater WA 6053
Tel. : + 65 6266 6010 Tel. : +61 (08) 9271 2265
Fax : + 65 6266 6968 Fax : +61 (08) 9271 2235
Email : airblastsg@singnet.com.sg Email: brad@airblastwa.com.au
MALAYSIA Airblast Australia (Victoria)
AB Corrosion Control Equipment 13B The Crossway
No. 60, Jalan Permas 9/7, Campbellfield VIC 3061
Bandar Baru Permas Jaya Tel.: : +61 (03) 9357 6522
81750 Masai, Johor Darul Takzim Fax: : +61 (03) 9357 7511
Tel : + 60 7387 4989 Email: peter@airblastvic.com.au
Fax : + 60 7387 5989
Email : abcorrosion@airblastasia.org Airblast Australia (Queensland)
Unit 1 / 272 Lavarack Ave
CHINA Pinkenba QLD 4008
Airblast Surface Treatment Co. Ltd. Tel.: : +61 (07) 3260 2670
Suit 14B - No.58 Xin Jin Qiao Rd. Fax: : +61 (07) 3260 2672
Pudong New Area Email: ross@airblastqld.com.au
Shanghai
Tel. : + 86-21-61060216 Or contact your local distributor.
Fax : + 86-21-61062017
Email : airblast@outlook.com.cn
INDIA
Airblast Equipment India Private Ltd
# 6-1-73/Unit - 207 ‘Saeed Plaza’
Hyderabad 500004-Telangana
Tel. : + 91 40 6674 8855
Fax : + 91 40 6674 8851
Email : info@airblastindia.com
© 2014 Airblast-Abrasives B.V. - Doc. nr. LT9009E Rev. F Jul. 2015