Are you sick of power brushing your structural steel?……
Removing mill scale and rust on the surface of steel sections is part of the process in every fabrication workshop. This process is too often carried out using the well-known power brush, turning into something that is messy, dangerous and nobody wants to do.
We at Protoblast have heard this story repeatedly but on the other side, we have also seen how easy this surface preparation can become when customers have installed a Protoblast Pre-fabrication Section Blast Machine which uses shot blasting to prepare the surface.
These machines are simple but highly effective and can remove rust and mill scale at a rate of up to 2m/min. Using 6 open-type blast wheels to provide coverage on steel sections within a 400mm (about 1.31 ft) wide by 1,000mm (about 3.28 ft) high envelope. Steel shot is used, and this cleans the surface to a Class SA-2 surface, which is all that is required for general-purpose surface protection. If a High Class is required or there is a certain surface profile specification that needs to be met this is done by adding some Steel Grit into the abrasive.
Being a self-contained shot blast machine means there is no dust and mess like from power brushing and fabricators love working with clean steel which is easy to weld, mark out and paint. We have endless examples from customers who have achieved massive increases in productivity once installing a Protoblast Section Blast Machine some examples are…
Customer in regional Victoria – “Once installing the Section Blast Machine I freed up three guys who were power brushing and preparing the steel for painting and they were able to be used in other processes and therefore increase productivity, also we blast the steel before sending it through the plasma profiler and are getting three times the life out of the electrodes and very little errors from slipping in the clamps, etc.”
Customer in Melbourne – “We gained 15% in increase productivity just from working with clean steel.”
Customer in New Zealand – “The fabricators will not work with steel that hasn’t been through the Blast machine.”
So, if you are power brushing your steel, contact us and we can show you how you can save time and money and have a cleaner, happier work environment.