Sandblasting Services

Sandblasting (abrasive blasting) is one of the most effective ways to clean and prepare steel, aluminum, stainless steel, and hot-dip galvanized steel for powder coating.

At over 100psi at the nozzle, the blast media is propelled towards the work product and removes mill scale, rust, oxides, or previous coatings.

The benefit of this is threefold:

The material is cleaned
The blasting leaves an anchor profile that increases the bond strength of the coating
The corrosion resistance is increased due to the increased bond strength.

While there are many blasting shops that you could choose from, there are only a handful of sandblasting shops that are able to provide coating in the same facility, let alone powder coating. Even if you have the blasting and coating done in the same day, the simple process of shipping the goods from the sandblasting shop to the coating shop can introduce a number of contaminants that will cause the coating to fail prematurely.

sandblasting-services

Things to consider when sandblasting

When preparing to have a job sandblasted, some considerations need to be made to ensure the job is done as efficiently as possible both for time and cost.

Below are a list of some questions that can help. Click on any question to reveal the answer.

Is the part previously coated?
The age and type of coating can have a significant impact on how easily it can be removed. There are certain coatings that we are not equipped to remove (eg. Lead based paints). It may be more cost efficient to have the coating stripped at a blast-only shop, and then we can give a quick sandblast to the part to clean up any oxides that have formed prior to coating.
Is it free of oil, grease, or other contaminants?

Blasting is not an effective method to remove grease, oil, or other lubricants. Even the presence of caulking or gasketing can create problems. The risk of blasting this is that it will contaminate the blast media, and spread contamination all over the work product; this in turn leads to premature coating failure and an expensive media reclaim bill.

At Aegis, we are equipped to degrease some parts, but prefer that product is sent to us free of these contaminants.

Where will the part be used?
Where and how your part is going to be used dictates how clean the substrate needs to be prior to coating. Aegis follows the cleanliness standards as defined by NACE and SSPC. If you do not have a specification that you are following for your project, we are able to provide you with guiding questions to determine how clean your product should be.
How accessible are the surfaces?
The accessibility of the surface to be blasted will have an impact on how we are able to prepare it for coating. We do have equipment that allows us to blast the inside of pipes and other recessed / internal areas. Depending on the complexity of the job and the degree of cleanliness required it is good to discuss other options in the fabrication and design that could reduce the complexity of the job.
Can I arrange for blasting elsewhere and have you coat it?
Maybe. If you are simply looking to cut down on costs this may not be your best option. Our policy is to blast all products before coating. The value that we provide is tied to the quality of the product you end up with. We can not control the quality if a portion of the process occurs outside of our facility. It is standard practice at Aegis to at least brush blast goods that arrive previously blasted.
Is there an industry standard that you are trying to achieve?

There are some industry standards, such as AWWA-C213 that have specific requirements when it comes to the type of media and blast cleanliness that is required. Please let us know if you have a specific standard that must be met.

Your custom coating solution starts here.