Today we are going to talk about the blasting term ABRASIVE FLOODING. This blog discusses the term as it relates to blasting cabinet abrasive delivery for Wet, Dry, Siphon, and Direct Pressure.
What is Abrasive Flooding?
Abrasive Flooding describes what happens when too little compressed air is being used to deliver abrasive volume measured in pounds per minute. It can also occur when too much abrasive is delivered for the compressed air being used in cubic feet per minute. This can happen with both Wet and Dry Blasting Cabinets using Siphon or Direct Pressure Deliveries. The pounds per minute delivered are almost the same with wet and dry abrasives at the same cfm volume of compressed air. So only varying the cfm volume by changing the guns and nozzle sizes can change the abrasive pounds delivered per minute using larger gun sizes.
What Are the Effects of Flooding?
While some of the effects of abrasive flooding may vary, the following things are very likely in some form:
- Slower Part Processing
- Increased Abrasive Cost
- Shortened Abrasive Recycle Rates
- Erratic Pulsing Flow
- Increased Expenses for Operation and Maintenance
Is Abrasive Flooding Good or Bad?
All abrasive blasting cabinets, wet or dry, siphon or direct pressure delivery, have an optimum abrasive delivery volume in pounds per minute when delivering abrasives to a part surface. Today we are seeing some abrasive cabinet manufacturers describe abrasive flooding as a positive attribute. This is done to capture sales with product information that looks great on paper, but not beneficial in real life.
We realized the challenge of high abrasive delivery volumes while developing our Media Blast® Blizzard Industrial Soda Blasting Cabinet. Soda is a one-time use abrasive and requires a special blasting cabinet design. The Media Blast® Soda Blizzard Model entered the market in 2004 for Industrial soda blasting. The other two soda models soon followed. Media Blast® created a unique Ghost Flow® soda delivery technology to specifically indicate the proper delivery volume for less soda than optimum abrasive delivery. Ghost Flow® Technology is Soda Delivery counter to information about operating with excessive soda delivery by soda manufacturing companies only selling soda. Soda Flooding simply sells more soda, but slower part processing!
We are seeing some industries leaning toward wet blasting machines in terms of more abrasive delivery suspensionequals increased production. Hopefully this article can help explain why a higher-than-normal abrasive delivery ratio may looking good on paper, but is usually a disadvantage.
How to Find the Best Abrasive Flow
There are two ways to find the best abrasive flow on any blasting cabinet. One is logical the other not so logical.
- First close the abrasive flow-control valve on any dry models, then start the blast using the specific required blasting pressure, and continue to open the flow-control valve more and more. You will reach a point with the perfect uniform even flow pattern. If your abrasive is pulsing, that indicates too much abrasive for the abrasive size being used. This applies to all dry blasting machines, except Hobbyist light duty models, that often only have a fixed set feeder valve setting good for only one abrasive mesh size.
- The second way, seldom used, is to time a contestant part for cleaning rate.
To Sum It Up
Media Blast®, manufactures Wet, Dry, Siphon, Gravity Feed, Direct Pressure, Light Duty, General Purpose R&D, and Industrial blast cabinet models. We make machines for all for all applications including Micro, Tumblers and a line of Semi-Automatic and Automatic Reverse Pulse Cleaning Dust Collectors. Our abrasive delivery cabinets are designed for a DDC, Daily Duty Cycle from 5% to 100%, more than 170 different machines models, and they all include adjustable mixing valves for proper abrasive flow.
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