Vapormatt News

 Wet blasting ensures damage free-cleaning of precision diecastings

The Vapormatt wet blast process (‘Vapormatting’) provides an efficient and cost-effective means of fine-finishing precision diecastings. The process does not damage delicate surfaces, removes minor surface imperfections and enables micro-cracking or defects to be identified quickly and easily.

Wet blasting utilises water and a fine aluminium or glass bead based media in suspension, delivered by a special pump and accelerated by compressed air to the process nozzle. The non-aggressive action of the aqueous-based media creates a thoroughly clean and lightly abraded result, without impinging on the metal surface. If required, the cleaning media can include a mild detergent to remove grease or oil.

The ratio between the water pressure and air pressure in the process nozzle is variable and controllable, allowing an effective “water buffer” to be maintained between the abrasive media and the surface being processed. This creates a lubricating action and washes the surface continuously during processing. The process is less aggressive than dry blast cleaning and no dust is produced.

No solvents or other potentially hazardous chemicals are involved, so the process is not affected by legislation governing solvent emissions.

The process can be carried out in Vapormatt manually operated cabinet machines or, for high throughputs, in dedicated automatic equipment.