Sabre automatic wet blasting machine

The technical challenge

The Sabre is built for manufacturers where surface finishing demands the same process rigour as the operations that precede it, whether that is machining, casting, or forging. Its CNC servo axes deliver point-to-point positioning, interpolated linear and circular motion, and raster scanning on a round table. Processing follows component geometry precisely, across programmable paths, at production volume. The logic is that of a CNC grinding machine.

Process control and compliance

The Sabre mounts up to eight blast guns on a configurable crown for insert processing, four programmable guns for aerospace components, or ten guns across both functions in the hybrid configuration. Gun position, stand-off distance between 25 and 200mm (0.98 and 7.87"), and blast angle between 20 and 80 degrees are all recipe-driven. Up to five axes of CNC servo motion cover horizontal and vertical linear travel, with optional rotary wrist and twist axes allowing nozzles to maintain their angle across varying component geometries. Slurry concentration, air pressure, abrasive ratio, axis speed, and thermal parameters are monitored in real time and displayed on trend screens via the HMI. The optional slurry concentration watchdog inhibits machine start if parameters drift outside pre-set limits, removing the most common cause of batch-to-batch variation.

Why Vapormatt

Vapormatt invented wet blasting. The Sabre carries that process depth into its most controlled form yet.

• Patented elutriation and slurry distribution: Continuous abrasive classification removes degraded media automatically without sieves, maintaining the media consistency that holds ±5 µm edge hone tolerance across a full production run.
• Five-axis CNC programmability: Point-to-point servo control across up to five axes, with configurable gun crowns and programmable angles, gives the Sabre the geometric reach of a machining centre in a wet blasting cell.
• Recipe-driven process accountability: Every parameter is stored, password-protected, and accessible remotely via Vapormatt 4.0, giving manufacturers the audit trail their quality systems and OEM customers require.

Further details of Vapormatt's patented technologies are available on our R&D and patents page

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

The bottom line

No wet blasting machine in this footprint combines five-axis CNC control, multi-gun throughput, and patented slurry management at this level of process accountability. The alternative is accepting either the throughput penalty of single-nozzle processing or the tolerance risk of a system that cannot hold media consistency across a run. Enquire now to discuss your application and arrange process development at our R&D facility.