A wet tumble-blaster offers a highly productive means of batch processing small components, and Wet Blasting Systems’ engineering designs include the option of a manual blast station to extend the usefulness of a number of automated wet blast models for occasional hand blasting chores.
The tilted basket system shown here has two wet blasting guns bracketed in position for use when the arm holes are locked out in the tumble-blast mode of operation. A third gun is provided for manual wet blasting, when the lock-out bar is removed and the automatic functions of the wet blast system are disabled.
Besides dual-mode operation, this design has another unusual optional feature. The tilt angle of the perforated stainless steel basket is adjustable. This tilt adjustment can be useful for optimizing the tumbling action of different components and the way the parts circulate in the batch load.
The objective, of course, is to adjust the speed of basket rotation until the components are gently, but rapidly, turning over and over on the surface of the mass of parts – if the guns are pointed at the center of the tumbling mass, this condition will expose the maximum amount of surface area to the blast stream and yield the fastest and most even coverage.
Experienced users tell us that one of the most important factors affecting the cycle time and the uniformity of finish in tumble-blast processing is finding just the right volume of parts per batch load. If a variety of different components are tumble-blasted in the same wet blast system, it is not uncommon for each different part to have a slightly different batch size, determined by observation and experiment.
Our Wet Blasting Systems engineering design portfolio includes larger-capacity wet tumble-blast models with a number of process variations, based on the individual customers’ requirements.
If you think wet tumble-blasting might offer a solution to your blast cleaning, finishing or surface preparation problem, one of our Wet Blasting Systems specialists will be pleased to discuss your requirements and supply information about alternative types of wet blast equipment that may be suitable.
