Blasting Oily Parts?

Many operators make the mistake of blasting parts contaminated with oil, grease or water in a cabinet not designed handle those soils.  The majority of blasting is done in a dry cabinet, airless or wheel blast machine and contaminating media will gum up hoses and guns causing down time and lost production.   Added time and money to a down operation is unfortunate however avoidable, with proper review of your parts and blasting operation prior to production.

Although majority of blasting is done with a dry abrasive or glass media there is equipment and media that, when necessary, have the capabilities of blasting oily or greasy parts.  Wet blast applications use a mixture of water and abrasive or non-abrasive media to
clean or prep the part and can only be used with special equipment designed for this process

Another option would be to use sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda.  This media has many unique properties, one being removing grease and oils without causing problems for the equipment. This like wet blast, is used in equipment specially designed to handle this type of application.