Advantages of Soda Blasting
Usually chemical cleaners are absorbed by some substrate and can weaken its integrity making normal blast pressures inappropriate. Such cleaners include acid and alkaline chemical cleaners and blast methods which embed rather than remove contaminants. The soda jet blast system is therefore formulated to provide a non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternative to chemical solvents and harsh abrasives.
Baking soda is a natural, inorganic salt with a soft crystalline structure, which makes it an ideal and effective mild abrasive. Baking soda is completely soluble in water and poses no specific safety or disposal problems.
Cleaning and De-coating In One Step
Standard abrasive blasting is a dirty process, often loading and even imbedding the surface with contaminants (grease, oil, tar and abrasive particles) in the process of removing the coating. Recycled abrasives compound the problem by loading increasing amounts into the substrate. Soda blast media effectively de-coats and cleans the substrate in one step, producing a level of surface cleanliness. A structure profile has been used to offset this lack of cleanliness.
Unique Cutting Action
Soda blast media offers the unique properties of sodium bicarbonate, the primary ingredient. The softness and friable nature of this crystal produces a unique cutting action with little or no effect on most substrates. For example, thick coatings can be removed from glass without any etching effect. With proper care, delicate substrates can be cleaned without damage.
No Pre-cleaning Required
For projects where the coating is covered with grease, carbon, salt or other contaminates, more traditional blasting methods require the coating to be fully cleaned before blasting. This is required so that contaminants are not driven through the coating and into the surface of the substrate, causing future coating failure.
No Need to Re-profile Steel
Standard grades of soda media (without any hard aggregates) do not profile steel. Soda has a profile grade of baking soda that imparts a profile on steel.
When an operator removes a coating from a metal surface, he or she exposes the existing anchor pattern under the coating. Unless corrosion has occurred, there is no reason to re-profile the surface.
Reduced Solid Waste
Soda blast media can be dissolved in fresh water. By dissolving the media and filtering out contaminants, the solution can generally be discharged to drains or open waterways. Waste volume is generally reduced to less than 5% of the original waste volume. With increasing landfill costs and liabilities, this advantage becomes more important every day.
Natural Rust Inhibitor
As long as soda is on a ferrous metal surface, rust will not form. For rust to form, free moisture and an acidic condition must exist. In most cases, free moisture combines with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to from carbonic acid. This acid releases a free metal (ferrous) ion which combines with oxygen (oxidises) to form rust. Soda buffers acid, prevents the release of free metal ions and prevents rust.
Benefits in Waste Disposal
In most non-hazardous applications, the residue from blasting with soda can be rinsed into sanitary drains or sewers, which flush the residue to a water treatment facility, greatly reducing the clean-up time. Sodium bicarbonate is actually beneficial to waste water treatment systems. For industrial treatment, soda blast media can often save significantly in waste treatment.
Increased Worker Safety
The safety of sodium bicarbonate to workers is well understood, since it has been in use for some time. The bicarbonate buffer system is the major extra cellular buffer in the human body, thus sodium bicarbonate is part of the body’s normal chemistry. Sodium bicarbonate and thus soda is not toxic via ingestion, inhalation or dermal contact, nor is it a skin or eye irritant. Any risk to workers is primarily the contaminant of coating removed during the blasting operation.
Odours
Soda blasting not only removes contaminants, it also reduces unpleasant odours.
Replaces Dangerous Solvents
Soda formula is an excellent degreasing media that eliminates the use of solvents in most cleaning processes. Hydro flex does not ‘dissolve’ or ‘emulsify’ grease and oils, it simply coats them causing the grease or oil to release from the surface. It also eliminates the translocation of oil and grease.
The system can be operated from a cherry-picker obviating the necessity and cost of erecting traditional scaffolding.