Dusty Abrasives Slow Productivity and Waste Money

WAR ON DUST: ARE YOU BOLSTERING ENEMY RANKS?

Can you think of anything more annoying than dust? We can’t either. As annoying as mosquitos are, at least they feed frogs and bats… but dust? There’s absolutely nothing good about it. This is especially true for blasters and painters.

Here are some things we can probably all agree on:

Dust is a nuisance.
When blasting, it affects and interferes with surrounding tradesman, businesses, and communities… everyone hates it, so we generally have to pay to contain it.

Dust slows down productivity.

• First off, if a blaster can’t see through the dust, it slows down his productivity because he can’t monitor his progress with clarity.
• Second, if there’s dust in the abrasive itself, it replaces and therefore reduces the abrasive particles that should be removing corrosion. With less abrasive particles, it’s going to take longer to clean the steel.

Dust is expensive.
And not just for the related productivity losses mentioned above… but also because you’re literally paying for it in each bag of abrasive. You are unknowingly giving dust the upper hand!

There are two very simple tests you can conduct onsite to determine how much dust is in your abrasive.

1. DUMP INTO YOUR POT – simply dump a fresh bag of abrasive into the bowl of your blast pot and watch how much dust wafts into the air. If you can see a brown cloud hovering above the pot, you’re abrasive is dusty and costing you time and money.

2. SHAKER TEST – Simply scoop a sample of each abrasive into its own plastic container… Fill it with water… seal the lids… and give them a healthy shake.

Dust, being lighter, will find itself suspended in the water. The murkier the water, the more dust in the abrasive.

If you’re experiencing dust problems on your projects, we strongly suggest you look into your abrasive and see if you may be aiding and abetting the enemy. You may be paying for dust. Give us a call. Your enemy is our enemy!