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Due to concrete’s versatility and cost compared to solid rock, most new building construction includes the use of concrete. Concrete is a technology as old as the Roman Empire, but has evolved to include finishes that can now be used in place of stone countertops or tile floors. When properly installed and maintained, concrete structures can last a very long time.

Contractors charged with restoring large buildings often have the time consuming task of repairing and/or repainting window frames and casings. Windows in these buildings can be very heavy and fragile, with glass components highly susceptible to chipping or fracturing. Window damage is avoided at all costs, as the glass is very costly to replace and reinstall.

If there was a college major for the coating of metal substrates, the first class would be Surface Preparation 101. The main theme would be maximizing coating adhesion…and to do this, a number of criteria would be taught including visual cleanliness, removing invisible contamination (salts/chlorides, oils, grit embedment), and how to create the coating’s required surface profile.

It’s a common belief in the industrial and manufacturing industries that all sparks create a hazard. Sparks can represent poor equipment grounding, short circuiting, or friction and collision energy that can be harmful to workers and machinery. Many also believe that all sparks can create an explosion through combustion in an explosive or flammable environment. While sparks can ignite flammable solids, liquids, or gasses, not all sparks possess the energy to cause an explosion. 

The new labeling system translates important product information in 15 languages, providing access/locations to Safety Data Sheets (SDS), safety information, and terms and conditions.

Sponge-Jet’s abrasive blasting process is unique in that it can be used in areas where traditional abrasive blasting would quickly be ruled out. Power generation, oil and gas, and other industries have embraced the use of blasting with Sponge Media™ abrasives for its ability to achieve high-quality surface preparation and consistent anchor profiles in dust prohibitive environments, even in potentially explosive atmospheres – where combustion of flammable liquids, vapors or combustible dusts exist.

Most abrasive blasting machines have highly technical components with names like control valves, moisture separators, blast pressure regulators. Usually these parts describe what they do. The Deadman trigger system may have a strange name, but it’s vital in stopping the flow of abrasive media and high pressure air in the event the blaster has a safety or medical issue. Abrasive blasting deadman triggers are integral to the safe operation of any Abrasive Blasting system and are mandatory in many countries and are sometimes required by global organizations.

If measuring dry film thickness is part of your profession, sign up for this free webinar, which will discuss the latest revision of SSPC-PA 9, “Measurement of Dry Coating Thickness Using Ultrasonic Gages.” This standard describes procedures to measure the thickness of dry, homogeneous coatings applied to concrete, wood, wallboard, plastic, fiber and composite material using commercially available ultrasonic coating thickness gages.

The Society of Protective Coatings (SSPC) released its latest Abrasive Specification – SSPC-AB 4, making it the first update since 2000. The AB series of specifications establish proper quality controls and procedures for using Recyclable Encapsulated Abrasive Media during surface preparation. While these standards are not referred to directly in many coating specifications, they are used from within other SSPC documents – most notably SSPC-SP7, SSPC-SP6, SSPC-SP10 and SSPC-SP5. These are perhaps the most widely cited standards for surface preparation worldwide and certainly within the USA. The SP series of standards has always required that abrasives meet an AB quality standard. Before this AB 4 release, exceptions allowed for the use of composite abrasives like Sponge Media, as no AB abrasive quality standards were applicable.

Check out this article published by Marine Maintenance Technology International that discusses potential pitfalls when choosing high pressure water and hand-tooling over abrasive blasting. Among them, the author addresses: