What is Blast Processing?
Blast processing is a surface treatment and finishing method in which abrasive particles—referred to as blasting media—are propelled onto the surface of a workpiece. Through this impact, operations such as cutting, cleaning, polishing, and surface modification can be performed.
Blast processing includes several types of technologies, such as:
Air Blast (Sand Blast)
Shot Blast
Wet Blast
Dry Ice Blast
Blast processing is widely used in industries such as automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, aerospace, and electronics. Its applications are diverse and include surface preparation, matte finishing, deburring, shot peening, and mold polishing.
What kind of processing method is it?
Uniform Non-Directional Surface.
During blasting, countless abrasive particles are propelled by air and randomly collide with the surface, forming a uniform surface texture without directional patterns.
This type of surface can provide various functional benefits, including improved durability, enhanced adhesion, and better sliding or friction characteristics.
By selecting appropriate blasting media—considering material type, shape, and particle size—blast processing can be applied to a wide variety of materials such as metals, ceramics, glass, and plastics.
Advantages of Blast Processing
Among various surface processing technologies, blast processing has fewer limitations regarding the material, shape, or size of workpieces compared with other methods such as machining, etching, chemical conversion treatment, or coating. This flexibility allows it to be applied to a wide range of products.
Replacing conventional processes with blast processing can improve productivity and product quality, helping many manufacturers resolve challenges in their production processes.
For surface coating processes such as plating, painting, or coating, blast processing can create an optimal base surface that significantly improves adhesion. Therefore, it is often used not only as a standalone process but also as a pre-treatment or base preparation step to achieve better overall results.
Origin and History of Sandblasting
The industrial origin of blast processing dates back to 1870 in Philadelphia, USA. Benjamin Chew Tilghman was inspired by the phenomenon of desert sand being blown against window glass and causing abrasion. He patented this concept and named the process the “Sandblast Method.”.
With the development of synthetic abrasives, modern sandblasting has evolved beyond the use of natural sand. Today, various blasting media are used, including metal, resin, and ceramic abrasives.
As a result, this technology is also referred to as Air Blast or Abrasive Blasting. Depending on the shape of the blasting media used, it may also be called Bead Blasting or Grit Blasting.
Purpose and Effect
Blast processing is widely used as a surface preparation step before bonding, coating, or thermal spraying. Some applications are also defined by standards such as JIS.
In this process, abrasives with strong cutting ability are used, such as:
Alumina (Product name: Fujirandom A / Fujirandom WA)
Steel grit
By blasting these abrasives at high speed, rust and contaminants on the surface are removed while simultaneously forming a uniform surface roughness without directionality.
Such clean surfaces with increased surface area provide several benefits:
Improved adhesion
Prevention of uneven coating
Reduction of internal corrosion
Examples:
Pre-treatment before coating bridge components
Surface preparation for heavy anti-corrosion coatings on steel structures
Plating pre-treatment of high-strength bolt joints
Adhesion preparation for electronic components
Teflon coating preparation for home appliances
Nashiji finishing is a surface treatment technique that creates fine uneven textures on metal surfaces, producing a unique tactile feel and soft luster.
This process is also referred to as:
Nashiji finishing
Matte surface treatment
By adjusting the type and particle size of abrasives, a variety of soft luster textures can be produced.
Examples:
Matte finishing of large stainless steel panels used in construction
Anti-glare treatment for medical equipment and measuring instruments
Scratch removal on stainless steel products
Blast cleaning is a method in which abrasive media are blasted at high speed to remove contaminants from surfaces quickly and easily.
Compared with manual cleaning, it is more efficient. Compared with chemical cleaning processes, it presents fewer hazards to operators, making it a safe and efficient cleaning method widely used in many industries.
Examples:
Removal of residual resin from injection molding machine screws
Cleaning residual resin from molds
Dry ice cleaning of food production lines
Cleaning jigs used in vacuum deposition equipment
Post-processing by blasting refers to the removal of burrs, unwanted projections, and casting sand generated during machining or forming processes.
High-speed abrasive blasting effectively removes:
Burrs from plastic or metal parts
Residual casting sand and core sand
Because countless abrasive particles impact the workpiece simultaneously, even narrow grooves and inner diameters that are difficult to process manually can be cleaned reliably.
Examples:
Removal of resin burrs from molded lead frames in electronic components
Deburring aluminum die-casting parts
Removal of internal casting sand from industrial equipment components
Sand removal in lost-wax casting processes
Shot peening is a cold working process in which spherical particles called shots collide with the surface of a workpiece at high speed.
This process induces plastic deformation and compressive residual stress on the surface, resulting in:
Suppression of crack propagation
Increased surface hardness
Improved wear resistance
Examples:
Automotive gears and shafts
Micro-particle peening for mold components and tools
By creating a uniform textured surface with micro-irregularities, the actual contact area of sliding surfaces can be reduced, thereby improving sliding performance.
Because frictional resistance is reduced, applying this treatment to components used in production equipment can improve overall productivity.
Since the surface texture is directly formed on the material itself, there is no risk of peeling as seen in coating processes.
Examples:
Prevention of powder adhesion in food factory hoppers
Prevention of powder adhesion on plastic mesh and metal sieves
The uniform surface texture created by blast processing, ranging from nanometer to several micrometer levels, reduces the contact area between molten resin and the mold surface.
This allows the resin to maintain better flow and move smoothly during molding.
Directional polishing marks can create resistance when resin shrinks. However, the non-directional uniform surface structure created after MKS treatment improves multidirectional sliding performance and reduces resin adhesion during shrinkage, thereby improving mold release performance.
Examples:
Improvement of mold-related molding defects such as:
Sink marks
Short shots
Voids
Bridge defects
SIRIUS-Z is our proprietary technology that further evolves blast processing to facilitate precision polishing and finishing.
Using SIRIUS-Z, even non-skilled operators can perform polishing easily and uniformly, and automation can also be implemented easily.
This technology is particularly effective for polishing complex shapes, narrow grooves, and internal diameters, and it is suitable for mass production processing.
Examples:
Polishing molds used in musical instrument manufacturing
Removal of coating droplets from drill tools and cutting tool
Latest Technology and Trend
Manufacturing environments continue to evolve with time, and industries face various challenges such as:
Improving production efficiency
Enhancing product quality
Reducing environmental impact
In this context, blast processing plays an important role and continues to contribute to solving these challenges through technological advancements.
Automation and Labor Reduction in Blast Processing
Automation in blast processing equipment is rapidly advancing.
Because air blasting uses nozzle systems, robots can hold blasting guns and perform automated processing.
Automation provides several advantages:
Reduced processing time
Mitigation of labor shortages
Easier quality control and consistency
Additionally, the use of robots enables precise blasting of complex shapes and large components, expanding the range of industrial applications.
Ultra-Fine Particle Peening: Alpha Treatment®
As products become lighter and more compact, components are becoming smaller and thinner, creating durability challenges.
Alpha Treatment is a life-extension technology applicable to precision components.
Based on our proprietary high-precision blasting technology, this peening process forms a strengthened surface layer through nanocrystalline strengthening, without significantly changing the dimensions or shape of the component.
At the same time, the formation of micro-textures improves sliding performance.
This technology is widely used in:
Cutting tools and blades
Precision press molds (punches and dies)
Gear reducers and other industrial components.
Finishing of 3D Printed Parts
The 3D printing market is rapidly expanding, particularly in aerospace and automotive industries where additive manufacturing is widely used for production and prototyping.
However, because 3D printing is a layered manufacturing process, surfaces often contain visible step marks called layer lines, which require significant time and labor to remove.
Using Pollux technology, both metal and resin 3D printed parts can be efficiently processed for:
Removal of layer lines
Surface visualization (transparency improvement)
Precision polishing
This significantly improves finishing efficiency.
Contact
Power Micro International Company offers comprehensive surface-engineering and anti-adhesion solutions to eliminate soldering/erosion defects and enhance productivity.
