Waterblasting

This method is ideal for cleaning internal and external surfaces because the operator is generally able to send the stream of water into places that are difficult to reach using other methods. Another benefit of Hydro-Blasting is the ability to reducing waste and mitigating environmental impact.

Water-Blasting stripping or cleaning, or water blast cleaning, is a common used method for the removal of material, coating, or contamination from the surface of a steel plate, pipe, machinery etc. D.Nikolaou has experience with all methods of Hydro-Blasting methods and specializes in ultra high pressure blasting.

D.Nikolaou. Operates High pressure jets and Ultra high pressure blasting uses water that is pressurized between 12.000 to 36,000 psi (800bar-2500Bar) to remove coatings and debris from substrates.

The Water-Blasting method removes these paints with one of two different categories: erosion or delamination. Erosion is commonly applied mostly on the high performance coatings namely, metal and carbide thermal spray coatings and a special nozzle is operating to convert the water stream into smaller pencilled stream, which affect the surface of the coating and thus small pieces of the coating to erode off the surface, leaving the substrate intact.

Water-Blasting machines consist of the following subsystems:

• Pump to pressurize the water.
• Nozzle to deliver the correct stream of water to the work piece.
• Enclosure to contain process.
• Nozzle and part manipulators.
• Waste handling equipment.
• Process control devices.

The Hydro-Blasting method has a number of advantages over competing conventional processes used to remove coatings. Usually the coatings removed with ultra high pressure blasting were applied either by the use of chemicals or other conventional mechanical means such as grit blasting , mechanical tooling, hammering, scraping or machining. Chemical cleaning is expensive, slow, and non Eco friendly. Grit blasting or mechanical tooling is more cost effective and faster than chemical processing, but cannot separate the coating and the substrate, which often causes removal of excessive material.

Definitions and suitable water pressures range.

Relation water pressure, effect of cleaning and production rates.

Sandblasting

Sand-Blasting is a surface preparation method mostly used in a number of different industries with a variety of project scopes. Sand-Blasting is one of the processes for the surface preparation by which an Sand-Blasting media is accelerated through a nozzle by means of compressed air. The Sand-Blasting used varies depends on the process treatment required.

Material selection is of paramount importance decision in the process of Sand-Blasting methods.The various material types have different characteristics namely, hardness, shape, and density, and each is available in a wide range of particle sizes.

Sand-Blasting is a crucial process used not only to remove rust, but to prepare surfaces for high performance coatings, high resistance (temperature) coatings etc.

The range of areas for Sand-Blasting include:

• Surface preparation prior to painting, bonding or other coating operations.
• Removal of rust, scale, sand, or paint from fabricated components.
• Roughening of industrial gas turbine engine component surfaces in preparation for thermal spray coating.
• Removal of burrs or edge profiling machined components.
• Providing a matte cosmetic surface finish.
• Removal of mold flash.
• Surface texturing of tooling, and molds to alter the appearance of surface.