Blasting and peening services

Sandblasting and shot peening processes utilize particles, abrasives, shot or other blast media that are propelled and impacted against the surface of a part using air, water or a blast wheel.  Sandblasting and abrasive blasting processes are used to scrape, abrade, or descale a surface so that further processing can take place. Sandblasting or abrasive blasting can use a handheld power spray gun, or a fixtured spray gun or wheel to remove all of a metal's visible rust, mill scale, paint and contaminants. A product that has undergone sandblasting service is left with a roughened surface with undercuts that improves the adherence of subsequently applied thermal spray or organic coatings. Metals treated so are uniformly white or gray in appearance.

Shot peening improves a material's fatigue strength or performance life under a high number of load cycles. In shot peening, smooth glass beads or metal shot are blasted at a surface to impart compressive residual surface stress, which removes residual tensile surface stress.  Unlike sandblasting, which abrades material from a surface, shot peening alters the surface through plasticity. A shot peening service generally uses rounded media to strengthen or dimple a surface. Shafts or other components that are exposed to a high number of load cycles require shot-peened parts or materials with higher fatigue strength. 

Blasting and peening services may be required on new or OEM parts to prepare them for further processing.  They may also be used in refinishing or recoating situations where the previous surface has been damaged, faded, or no longer protects the substrate properly. Some blasting and peening services work at the customer's site or in the field. Whether in the field or in-situ, professional sandblasting services companies provide cleaning, finishing, painting, coating or resurfacing services for large structures, equipment, facilities, process tanks, boiler tubes, heat exchangers, production plants, bridges, ships or buildings. 

Materials and Substrates

Blasting and peening services can process many different materials and substrates. Materials processed include metals and alloys as well as other abradable materials such as glass, composites, wood, and plastics. Elastomer tend to be used as masking materials

Metal Sandblasting

Abrasive blasting can handle a wide variety of metals and alloys such as carbon steel, alloy steel, stainless steel, tool steel, aluminum, copper alloys (brass and bronze), iron and cast iron, nickel alloys, cobalt alloys, superalloys, titanium , precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium)

Blasting and Peening Services

Certification and quality requirements for blasting and peening services include AS9100, a wide variety of ISO certifications, QS-9000, MIL-SPEC, NADCAP (National Aerospace and Defense Contractors), and OEM-specific (e.g., Pratt & Whitney or Boeing).