Choosing the right abrasive blasting media for your project depends heavily on the results you want. One media type can provide vastly different finishes depending on the material you’re blasting.
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One of our favorite all-purpose abrasives for removing paint, rust, and oily buildup is EpiX Medium Profile superoxalloy abrasive. We use it frequently to prepare parts for paint and powder coating on steel and cast iron parts. But as we work through side projects on our Range Rover restoration, we wondered about its effectiveness on cast aluminum.
In the past we’ve used glass bead on cast alloy parts like valve covers and intake manifolds. And while the finish always looks great, glass bead leaves the shop floor a bit slippery around the blast cabinet. The powdery, microscopic glass orbs seem to get everywhere.
To ease our curiosity, we grabbed the intake manifold from our project and masked off section to test both materials. Our large Eastwood B120 blast cabinet was already loaded with EpiX, as it usually is. We recently brought a benchtop blast cabinet into the shop for another project and loaded it with glass bead for our test. The results are evident in the pictures.
To our surprise, the EpiX MP was milder on the aluminum than we expected. It did a great job of removing the old Cosmoline, minor surface corrosion, and engine grime making it look derelict. The cast aluminum surface held up without losing its original appearance, and it worked fast, taking only a couple minutes. It also generated very little dust in the cabinet.
While the finish looked clean and new, it didn’t have the same pop of brilliance we’d seen from other abrasives. Nevertheless, we were completely satisfied with results on our part. It was a vast improvement over the way it went into the cabinet.
After testing the EpiX, we remasked the manifold and moved it to the B40 modular cabinet for its turn with the glass bead. This fine https://www.eastwood.com/glass-bead-blast-media-100-170-grit-50-lbs.html70-100 grit formulation took slightly longer to remove heavier buildup, and of course found its way out of the cabinet in several places. But the finish was amazing. The glass beads have a polishing effect that leaves the metal looking shiny and new.
We left a section of the part masked throughout both processes for comparison as well. It’s clear that both of these abrasives were effective at restoring the bare aluminum to a like-new appearance. While either would be fine, our preference for this project has us leaning toward the glass bead for remaining cast aluminum parts.
Previously published on fastradius.com on September 29,
Contact us to discuss your requirements of bead blasted aluminum. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Surface finishing is the final step in the CNC machining process, and it’s very important for creating a functional and beautiful CNC machined part. Applying a finish to a CNC machined surface can improve a component’s appearance, remove flaws and excess material, provide additional resistance or strength, and so much more.
There are many different surface finish options for CNC machined parts, from as-machined to anodized to powder coated. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at bead blasting, which is one of the more affordable surface finishes available.
The bead blasting process uses a blasting media – beads – under high pressure. Propelling the beads at a surface cleans, polishes, or roughens the surface to the desired finish. These beads are shot out toward the component from a high-pressure bead-blaster. When the beads hit the surface, the impact creates a uniform “dimpling” on the surface. A bead blast finish can clean corroded metal, remove cosmetic defects like textures and contaminants, and prepare a part for paint and other coatings.
You can use steel beads or glass beads for a bead blast surface finish. Steel beads are tough and are often used to clean contaminants and remove unwanted textures from hard metal surfaces. Glass or quartz sand beads are gentler than steel and are the primary type of bead used for bead blasting. This is because glass bead blasting leaves a more smooth, uniform surface finish on a material than steel beads. Glass bead blasting is also more variable because the size of the glass bead changes the quality of the finish it will impart. Fine glass beads leave a “dull” or “satin” smooth finish that’s a cross between a dull and high-gloss finish. Coarse glass beads yield uniform roughness and mask any imperfections.
A bead blast finish leaves your CNC machined part with a smooth, clean, and aesthetically pleasing surface. Bead blasting can be used on a variety of materials — manufacturers can apply bead blasting to hard metals like aluminum, titanium, and stainless steel, as well soft metals like brass or copper, and even plastic.
Here are some other key benefits product teams should keep in mind:
These benefits notwithstanding, glass bead blasting does come with a few drawbacks.
Bead blasting is a flexible, multi-purpose surface finish that involves shooting high-pressure glass or steel beads at a CNC machined component. A bead blast finish can clean your part’s surface and improve the overall appearance, creating a uniform surface with a dull, satin, or rough texture. Bead blasting could even harden a component’s surface and enhance its durability.
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