Age of Plastic Blasting Media for Elastomers
Age of Plastic Blasting Media for Elastomers
(OP)
Hi
As an aerospace engineer I have come across an issue related to plastic blasting media.
Our supplier uses plastic blasting media to clean off (Deflash) molded rubber from the metal plate into which grooves the rubber is molded. Fragments of old plastic media may get embedded in the molded rubber. Yet the supplier uses guidelines such as "Too dusty to see through the chamber window" for replacement of the plastic media. I could not find any guidelines in specs. or literature? Any ideas?
Thanks,
LM
As an aerospace engineer I have come across an issue related to plastic blasting media.
Our supplier uses plastic blasting media to clean off (Deflash) molded rubber from the metal plate into which grooves the rubber is molded. Fragments of old plastic media may get embedded in the molded rubber. Yet the supplier uses guidelines such as "Too dusty to see through the chamber window" for replacement of the plastic media. I could not find any guidelines in specs. or literature? Any ideas?
Thanks,
LM





RE: Age of Plastic Blasting Media for Elastomers
Lacking any established standard, how about defining a standard target (steel plate with known thickness of paint perhaps). Blast at defined distance and pressure and measure time to clean off the paint. If it exceeds some time, replace the media.
RE: Age of Plastic Blasting Media for Elastomers
A sifting screen could be a way to seperate the fines but the screens themselves will be subject to wear and will need continual monitoring. I do not believe the cyclone units could differentiate between plastic fines and media. You might check with the cyclone dust manufacturers they may be able to seperate.
RE: Age of Plastic Blasting Media for Elastomers
There was a recommendation on using the media in small cabinets, not due to dust but to heat build up causing the media wanting to stick to the part being blasted. When we used plastic media we used it as a one through system and then ran it through a screen classifier with dust collection to keep the average particle size large.
As stated, one time we compounded a material for blasting media but got out of the business due to a lawsuit stemming from an explosion in a blast room. I wasn't privy to any of the proceedings but we were led to understand that they were recycling the plastic media and paint particles with dust collector not functioning correctly and when the door to the booth was opened there was an explosion. Though no source of ignition was determined, it was strongly thought that a person who had just left the booth was lighting a cigarette.
RE: Age of Plastic Blasting Media for Elastomers