Abrasive Blasting Additive Crushes to Remove Impurities
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional blasting methods face challenges with workpieces having grease, oil, or residue layers, leading to impurity accumulation in the blasting agent, requiring frequent cleaning with solvents, posing health and environmental risks, and increasing costs.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a granular additive with lower breaking strength than the actual blasting agent, which crushes under mechanical stress, allowing for easy separation and removal of impurities through particle size-selective processes, and using perlite rock as a suitable additive for its porosity and safety features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional blasting agents are used to process workpieces with grease, oil, or residue layers, then the blasting process can proceed without pre-cleaning, but impurities accumulate in the blasting agent requiring frequent cleaning with solvents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a dual-component blasting agent system where a secondary blasting agent acts as an intermediary substance. This secondary agent has higher oil absorption capacity and lower breaking strength, allowing it to preferentially absorb impurities and break down into fine particles that facilitate impurity removal from the primary blasting agent, thereby mediating between the workpiece surface and the reusable blasting medium
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical and chemical parameters of the blasting agent system by combining two agents with different properties: the primary agent maintains blasting effectiveness while the secondary agent provides enhanced oil absorption and impurity binding capabilities. The secondary agent's lower breaking strength parameter allows it to fragment into fine particles that carry impurities away, changing the particle size distribution and chemical composition dynamics of the blasting medium
2Reliability
If frequent cleaning of the blasting agent is performed to remove accumulated impurities, then blasting agent performance is maintained, but health and environmental risks increase due to solvent use and additional costs are incurred
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a selective discarding mechanism where the secondary blasting agent, along with the impurities it has absorbed, is separated and discarded from the system. The primary blasting agent, which remains relatively clean and effective, is recovered and recirculated. This selective discarding approach reduces the frequency and intensity of cleaning operations needed for the reusable blasting medium
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts impurities from the blasting agent system by introducing the secondary agent that selectively binds to and removes contaminants. The secondary agent acts as an extractable component that can be separated along with absorbed impurities through classification processes, effectively extracting harmful substances from the reusable blasting medium without requiring extensive cleaning
3Quantity of substance
If the additive has lower breaking strength than the actual blasting agent, then the additive crushes under mechanical stress increasing surface area for impurity removal, but the additive may not withstand the blasting process conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by assigning different strength characteristics to different components of the blasting agent system. The primary blasting agent maintains high strength for effective material removal, while the secondary additive has locally optimized lower breaking strength specifically at the points of contact with impurities, allowing selective fragmentation where needed while maintaining overall structural integrity through the dual-agent system
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enhances the efficiency, safety, and environmental friendliness of the blasting process by effectively removing impurities from the blasting medium, reducing the need for frequent cleaning and minimizing health and environmental hazards.
Implementation Method 1
Under the mechanical stresses to which the blasting agent is subjected during the blasting process, the additive preferably has a lower breaking strength than the actual blasting agent itself not to break
Implementation Method 2
the vast majority of the impurities present on the surface of the workpiece do not adhere to the granules of the actual blasting agent, but to the crushed granules of the additive
Implementation Method 3
This can be done, for example, by air classification or the use of classifying cyclone separators, in which the blasting agent mixture is divided into a fraction that essentially contains the actual blasting agent and still uncomminuted components of the additive
Data Source
Figure 1
AI summary
In a blasting process, an abrasive (4) is blasted onto a workpiece (2) in a blasting operation. During this process, the granules of an additive (6) are at least partially crushed.