Pressure Sandblasting Pots Superior to Siphon Pots

Posted: Thursday, August 27, 2009

by Christen Reinke
Industrial Supply, Inc.

Sandblasting with a pressure pot is in general, four times faster than using a siphon pot. Why? A siphon pot will rely on the weight of the sandblasting media to feed down into the air stream, and thus is prone to sputtering. This is particularly the case with light weight blast media, such as corn cob or walnut shell. Due to this, you may have to use a steeper cone in the bottom of your siphon pot, as well as have to stop and agitate the pot from time to time to get the grit to feed down into the air stream. This can make for a very frustrating and time consuming job.

Pressure pots on the other hand, use compressed air to feed the blasting grit into the air stream, and as such, eliminate many of the problems associated with siphon pot systems. The pressure pot should also have a metering valve which regulates how much sand gets fed into the air stream. Some sandblasting media will require that the user decrease the amount of media being fed into the air stream, as is the case with corn cob blasting. More corn cob in the air stream will do nothing but waste material. (This is one of the most common mistakes when blasting with corn cob).

Regulating air pressure, or psi, is a critical part of using a pressure pot. The sandblasting operator will need to adjust the air pressure up or down, (along with their distance from the object, and the angle at which the blast media is flung at the object ), in order to achieve the desired effect. Having the ability to control psi, as well as how much abrasive is released into the air stream, is especially important with some of the newer sandblasting grit now available on the market.

For example, one of these new blasting grits is called Sinterblast. Sinterblast is a brown sintered aluminum oxide product, and is both similar to, yet different from the usual brown fused aluminum oxide. Sinterblast is made from the same raw feed stock media (Bauxite), yet is sintered rather than fused. Sinterblast requires a lower psi than regular brown aluminum oxide, and should be blasted around a 60 psi. If you do not have the ability to regulate the psi on your blasting pot, you will not likely obtain your desire result.

For more information on Sinterblast, or other sandblasting media, please visit: http://sandblastingabrasives.com/ or call 970-461-8429.

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