Abrasive Blaster

Abrasive Blaster
Abrasive Blaster Abrasive Blaster

What is Water Blaster?

Water blasters offer versatile and extreme cleaning solutions for all types of industrial and small business demands. With units offering up to 40,600 PSI, the applications are endless.

Water blasters can be used to clean paint, stain, oil build-up, rust, hard-water deposits, mold, as well as pipes, tubes, and lines of all kinds. When used without chemicals, water blasters clean with virtually no negative environmental impact. Even with the need for added abrasives, dry ice, baking soda, and river sand are often used and there is still zero environmental impact as these are non-toxic. In many applications, cleaning can be achieved with pressure alone, which can be a big money saver. Water blasters go well beyond cleaning, too. There are water blasters that polish, cut, prepare material for re-surfacing, and remove debris as heavy as concrete.

The machinist industry has found that using high-pressure water jets of a water blaster to de-burr and clean machined parts is an ideal method to use. It not only cuts down on inconsistencies and intensive manual labor, but it removes these burrs and other particles, and cleans at the same time. Water blasters get into the hard-to-reach internal features of the parts for superb cleaning.

The water blaster systems on the market today offer a lot of choice for individual needs. Complete water blaster units come with everything required for basic application, such as the pressure generator, abrasive injectors, nozzles or wheels, dust collectors and cabinets. Components can also be purchased separately to build your own water blaster system or replace worn parts.

The purchase of a water blaster will depend on many things, but the basic primary considerations are size, mounting, and how it is powered. Water blasters come with either electric or diesel motors with 45HP up to 250HP. Electric units are ideal for jobs in fixed locations. Size and mounting offer more choice and you must evaluate your needs. Do you need handheld portability, or a larger mobile unit such as those mounted on a trailer for getting to large industrial jobs? There are trailer-mounted units in several sizes that are capable of pressures from 8,000 PSI up to 40,600 PSI. For even higher levels of performance, there are stationary models with up to 250 HP that give 40,600 PSI with delivery rates up to 16.6 GPM (gallons per minute).

There is also a water blaster called a “crawler.” This unit is built on tracks and is made to scan over a surface using magnetic (or vacuum) feet, which are mounted on the tracks. The tracks guide the jet cutter head as it crosses the surface.

The specific components of the water blaster system are the pressure generator, abrasive injectors, water tank and nozzles or wheels. The pressure generator increases the pressure of the unit and operates with either a plunger-type intensifier pump, or a crankshaft driven plunger pump. Intensifiers are more commonly used, as crankshaft pumps tend to wear down the seals faster. Crankshaft driven pumps are smoother and cost less to operate however.

About the Author

Ultimate Washer has been the leading retailer since 2003 in pressure washer equipment and accessories with high ranking in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Msn, Etc.,).We are authorized distributors for several major manufacturers in the U.S.A. for products ranging from small parts to large custom build machinery. Currently we have relationships with about forty suppliers.

volume velocity converted to linear velocity converting. CFM to FPM?

I have a micro abrasive media blaster that uses 1.25 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of 85psi compressed air through a nozzle with a .0472" diameter orifice. I need somebody to check my math for the velocity at the nozzle. Let A=area of the orifice, and V=velocity.
(A)in²=Pi(.0236in)²; Then divide by 144 to convert to feet
(A)ft²=(1.2174 x 10e-5)ft², or .000012174ft²
V = 1.25ft³/min x 1/(A)ft²
V = 1.25ft / (A)min
V = 102680 ft/min
This doesn't seem correct. That's over 1160 miles per hour???

You and OilField are both mostly correct.

Compressed air is measured at atmospheric pressure, so at 85psi has much less volume than 1.25ft³. At the pressure side of the orifice, the air has relatively low velocity. As it goes though, it loses pressure and increases velocity. Outside the nozzle, it is back to atmospheric pressure.

You assume the entire pressure drop is across the orifice. This is fine for a first level course, but not entirely representative of what really happens.

Speed of sound is about 760 mph. Unlikely you are over 0.8 times this, due to compressibility effects (speed of sound issue). You are not going to have enough energy in the compressed air to move it to the speed of sound. Thus, speed at center of orifice is probably absolute max of 600 mph, and air is still compressed somewhat when coming through. There is also friction at the orifice that will slow the air near the edge, so the speed across the airstream won't be uniform.