Several high-demand markets, such as medical manufacturing, aerospace, and micro-electronics, now depend on precision blasting for various cleaning and finishing processes. Precision blasting involves using fine media at very low, carefully controlled flow rates.
Historically, Empire did not participate in applications requiring extremely fine media with flow rates measured in grams per second. However, creative collaboration between our Portable and Automation groups has changed that.
This journey began in the 1990s with the introduction of our SafeStrip portable blaster, designed for delicate cleaning using light, fine media. As demand for “light touch” blasting grew beyond outdoor applications, we expanded our offerings with the SafeStrip cabinet line.
More recently, our Applications Engineering department received a request to develop a system capable of etching over 400 medical devices per hour, using less than two grams of fine, costly media per second. Thanks to our SafeStrip technology, we secured the project.
By integrating two SafeStrip pressure vessels with an indexing turntable, we created a system that surpassed the customer’s strict requirements for consistency. During testing, we maintained media-flow variances of less than 0.1%, well within the customer’s 5% tolerance, while using less than four ounces of media per minute.
Contact Us to learn more about Empire’s “Low-Flow” capabilities or any of our air-blast products.