Blasting agent and blasting method

#The invention relates to a blasting agent as well as its manufacture and to a blasting method as well as a device for carrying out the blasting method

#Blasting methods are known from the state-of-the-art. Common to them is that a means for mechanical processing of surfaces (hereinafter also: actual blasting agent), which is usually a granular material, is shot onto a surface to be blasted. Here, granular material refers to a granular material in the broadest sense of the term, i.e., a material consisting of particles with a defined size distribution, and where symmetrically shaped particles such as spheres shall also be considered granular material below. The shape, the size distribution and the material of which the granules are made are selected according to the material of the workpiece to be processed and the desired effect of the blasting procedure on the workpiece. The purpose of the procedure may be to free a surface of an old coating, to prepare a surface for a new coating, but also to polish the surface or improve its mechanical properties.

#Accordingly, edged granular material is often selected as blasting agent, for example, if the processing purpose is to remove material from the surface or to roughen a surface, or round granular material is selected if the surface is to be polished or its mechanical properties are to be improved, for example, using the so-called shot blasting. In principle, however, material can also be removed using round granular material.

#These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description, taken together with the drawings wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a view of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

#The exemplary device according to the invention exhibits a blasting device 1 in which the blast 3 impacts the workpiece 2. The blasting agent 5 used is captured and supplied to the processing device 8. In said processing device, a first portion 13, which essentially contains the actual blasting agent as well as the un-crushed portion of the additive, is separated using a sizing cyclone separator or an air separator, and separated from a second portion 12, which is preferably discharged by a carrier air stream and that contains the crushed portion of the additive as well as abrasions of the workpiece and/or of the blasting agent and the contaminants to be removed from the process, all of which are provided to a filter device 9. The second portion 12 can be removed from the carrier air stream using a filter 10 and discharging only uncontaminated air 11.

#In the preferred embodiment, the additive may be a material such as PantaTec ULTIMATE™ available from PantaTec GmbH of Bad Oeynhausen Germany, the specification, use and testing of which is fully incorporated herein by reference. As is known in the art, the optimum concentration of the additive is determined in advance by conducting measurements. Throughout the cleaning process, the concentration of the additive in the mixture is determined as indicated by the manufacturer of the additive. Depending on the degree of contamination, experimental data gives the user an indication of how much additive to add. The step of adding additional additive can be performed either by hand (by simply pouring the additive directly into the blasting agent) or by using an automatic device as is well known in the art and shown, for example, in the PantaTec brochure.

#According to one feature of the invention, a device 7 as is known in the art may be present for the automated metered supply of the granular additive 6 and is used to add the additive to the circulating blasting agent 5 and that preferably meters the added additive such that the proportion of the additive in the blasting agent mixture blend 5 remains largely constant even at a prolonged operation of the device.