Pipelines are crucial for transporting clean water from treatment plants to cities, businesses, and homes. By maintaining a closed piping system from the source to the faucet, water utilities reduce the risk of water contamination. During the manufacturing of these pipes, proper surface prep must be completed to ensure that they maintain their integrity after coating and installation. In Monterrey, Mexico, a pipe manufacturer needed rust and mill scale removed from 3,500 steel pipe internals after they had been manufactured - and QuickJet was able to help. These pipes, measuring 84 inches (2.1m) in diameter, and 39 feet (12m) in length, needed to be blasted and coated quickly, as they had to be shipped to a local water facility to install underground. This was an estimated 3,001,792ft² (278,876m²) of pipe needing to be prepped, and time was of the essence. 

Initially, the pipe manufacturer began testing with garnet. Unfortunately, they found it to be too slow and dusty, creating much more waste than they had expected. On top of increasing waste disposal costs, the team could only blast about 5 pipes per day. Needing a faster, more effective solution, they looked to Sponge-Jet.

After trials with Sponge Media™, the pipe manufacturer was very impressed with the speed and efficiency of the production. Based on tests, the Sponge Media™ was much faster than garnet, while still being able to prepare the surface to its required specification. The manufacturer was also impressed with the small amount of waste accumulated during the process, thanks to Sponge Media's™ low-dust, recyclable capabilities.

The crew also utilized three Sponge-Jet Roboticas™, which are specifically designed to work with Sponge Media™ in large diameter pipes, making this project a perfect application. Robotica allows for precise control, high productivity rates, and reduced Sponge Media™ consumption compared to manual blasting. An added bonus was that use of the Robotica™ meant that workers were almost always outside of the pipe during blasting, increasing their safety and reducing injury risks.

Instead of blasting only 5 pipes per day with garnet, the use of Sponge Media™ and Robotica™ allowed for the workers to complete 60 pipes per day. This 12x faster production boost let to huge savings in labor costs. The pipe manufacturer and coating inspector were very pleased with the quality of work produced in this amount of time.

Further, the clients at the local water facility and the Government of Mexico were thrilled. At the completion of this project, the Government of Mexico approved this Sponge Blasting process to be used on future projects. Thanks to the high production rates and the highest quality surface prep, the client at the local water facility ultimately added 1,500 more pipe internals to this project. At 54 inches (1.37m) in diameter and 39 feet (12m) in length, this added another 827,024ft² (76,833m²) to the scope of the project.  

Overall, using Sponge-Jet was quicker, safer, and less dusty than garnet for this pipe manufacturer. They were able to remove all invisible contaminants and rust from the large pipe internals 12x faster than with garnet, ultimately winning them more pipe internals to blast, and totaling the amount of steel pipe blasted to nearly 3,828,816ft² (355,709m²).