Can wet blasting meet aerospace and medical OEM specifications?

It's a fair question. Both sectors have zero tolerance for ambiguity. A surface either meets the specification or the component doesn't ship.

In aerospace, wet shot peening is governed by AMS 2432, the specification covering computer-monitored shot peening, which requires every cycle parameter to be logged and auditable. Many engine programmes also specify a maximum bead-to-water ratio in the slurry, to keep peening intensity within tolerance throughout the run. Our automatic machines hold both requirements continuously, with shot flow, air pressure, nozzle position and cycle time monitored in real time and automatic shutdown on deviation.

In medical implant manufacturing, ASTM F86 sets out the surface preparation requirements for metallic surgical implants, including the removal of embedded particles and contaminants from titanium, cobalt-chrome and tantalum. Wet blasting meets this by design: water cushions the abrasive, so nothing embeds in the substrate. ISO 13485, the quality management standard for medical device manufacturing, requires that any process affecting product quality be validated and controlled. Our machines hold Ra consistently between 0.25 and 0.6µm for sterilisable surfaces, and adjust to the 1.0 to 4.0µm range needed for osseointegration, on the same machine, batch after batch, giving manufacturers the repeatability that validation depends on.

The hard part isn't meeting a specification once. It's holding it, cycle after cycle, batch after batch, without drift. That is what our machines are engineered to do.

Contact us if your current finishing is struggling to meet the required specifications.