Preventing Abrasive From Entering Solenoid And Control Lines

Do you ever have issues where you find abrasive in your blast pot solenoid or in your clean signal airlines? This is caused by improper shut down procedures.

Here’s how to properly depressurize your blast pot to eliminate the likelihood of abrasive getting into your solenoid or into your signal lines.

Here’s How To Prevent It

At the end of the work day, blasters typically leave open the inlet ball valve which goes to the compressor. When it’s time to take off, the worker simply shuts down the compressor which lets everything drain backwards to the compressor. Not Good! What you actually need to do is shut off the inlet supply air (possibly at the dryer if you’re using one) so you don’t have a loaded hose… and then open up the blow down muffler.  If you don’t do this it lets air drain backwards from inside the vessel to the compressor. This creates a vacuum from the riser pipe and you load everything full of abrasive. The next day, when you repressurize, you then inject that abrasive through all your control lines and that’s how you end up with abrasive in your clean signal airlines.