Cougar+ automatic wet blasting machine

The technical challenge of automating wet blasting at production volume

The process variables that determine surface finish quality (media concentration, air pressure, nozzle angle, traverse speed and cycle time) all interact with each other. Change one without accounting for the others and the finish drifts. A European extrusion die shop, replacing a lower-cost machine, was losing five hours of production a week to pump failures and discarding 100 to 150kg of abrasive media every week. The old machine’s annual running cost was close to the capital cost of the Cougar+ that replaced it. The Cougar+ eliminated this waste, reduced running costs and delivered consistency shift after shift, without operator intervention.

Process control, compliance and media management

An abrasive level sight glass provides real-time media concentration monitoring, combined with hydrocyclones and closed-loop filtration to automatically remove degraded media. Recipes are stored and recalled via the HMI or pulled from the customer’s network, and Vapormatt 4.0 remote access is fitted as standard, so our engineers can diagnose faults and adjust programs without a site visit. For wet shot peening, the machine is configurable to comply with AMS 2432, with long nozzles, an elutriation tower, individual gun air pressure control, airflow monitoring and timing safeguards available as part of the wet peening kit. For large safety-critical aerospace components that need computer-monitored peening with automatic shutdown and full cycle logging, the Leopard Cub or Leopard is the better fit.

Why Vapormatt

The Ashworth family pioneered wet blasting in the 1940s and founded Vapormatt in 1978. Four generations of application engineering are embedded in every Cougar+ configuration, across aerospace peening, extrusion die cleaning and precision finishing. That knowledge is already inside the machine. It is not something you develop from scratch.

• 32 standard configurations: Four blast head types, four loading configurations, and a range of control modules match your workflow without custom engineering risk or extended lead time.
• 1,000kg (2,205lb) load capacity: The single and twin vertical door configurations take loads up to 1,000kg, lifted by overhead crane onto a turntable that slides fully out of the cabinet. With twin load ends, one turntable loads while the other blasts. In extrusion die shops, a single load end suits 5–10 dies a day, while twin load ends support up to 300.
• Robotic integration: A robotic system fitted inside the blast cabinet delivers full automation of component handling without a dedicated robotics cell or additional floor space.

The Vapormatt Promise: the machine meets the agreed specification, or we make it right.

The bottom line

Choose the Cougar+ for components up to Ø1,200mm (47") and 1,000kg (2,205lb), or when you need twin load ends or above-and-below blasting for higher throughput. It is the most configurable production-grade automatic wet blasting machine from the originator of the process. For smaller components up to 150kg (330lb), the compact Puma+ is the better fit. Operators who defer automation accept process variability, manual labour dependency and compliance exposure. Speak to our team and specify a configuration against your application.