New surface prep technique ‘Dustless Blasting’
When it comes to swimming pool resurfacing, from re-plastering to fiberglassing, to simple painting, experts say that surface preparation is paramount. It is essential to achieve a good bond with the old surface, but this can be difficult to achieve, and can involve hand chipping, sand and water blasting, or harsh chemicals But have you heard of Dustless Blasting?
Dustless Blasting is a revolutionary paint stripping and cleaning system that can remove virtually any coating from almost any surface, without creating a huge plume of dust.
This is an industrial-strength coating removal solution.
With a compressor-powered blasting system, simply point a hose and remove dirt, paint or just about any outer layer on a wide variety of surfaces—including metals, wood, concrete, stone, brick and fiberglass.
With abrasive blasting, you optimize your media and pressure to suit the surface being blasted, without having to use any harsh chemicals.
The blasting systems can perform wet, dry and soda blasting—three types of blasting suited to different environments and surfaces.
Dustless Blasting is the perfect solution to remove paint, calcium deposits and stains from a gunnite pool. It can also be used to safely clean pool and spa tiles, to restore pools to a much newer finish.
The Dustless Blaster works by mixing water and an eco-friendly abrasive inside the blast pot. Because water has more mass, it does not compress like air does. Introducing water dramatically increases the mass and energy the machine is putting out, so it is more powerful and faster than traditional blasting.
As opposed to a gravity-fed system, the feed system uses venturi suction to convey the abrasive and water up and out of the machine. The abrasive and water are pulled from the bottom and exit the top. This simple design makes it reliable, easy to operate and eliminates wear parts.
During blasting, the media and coatings that are removed get trapped in water and grounded, which eliminates the dust plume.
OSHA recommends using a wet abrasive delivery method — such as Dustless Blasting — as a primary means of protecting workers. Water encapsulates the abrasive and coating being removed, which prevents them from becoming airborne and being inhaled.
You can also use a less toxic abrasive, such as 40/70 recycled crushed glass, which contains no crystalline silica.
Or use any abrasive in the Dustless Blasting system, such as: Crushed Glass, Copper Slag / Coal Slag, Sand, Garnet, Organics (Walnut, Corncob, Soda).
