ZirPro offers efficient and durable ceramic blasting media — Microblast®, Zirblast®, Zirglass® and Zirshot® — for surface treatment processes such as blast cleaning, surface preparation, surface finishing and shot peening.
Surface Preparation
For surface preparation, blasting is an efficient and economical industrial process. Blasting creates a rough profile on a metallic surface to facilitate subsequent treatment such as painting or coating. Surface preparation often is performed with angular abrasive media that shear deeply into the metallic material. Ceramic beads provide specific roughness profiles with low material removal as well as no surface contamination.
Offering unique physical properties and a wide range of sizes, Saint-Gobain ZirPro Zirblast®, Microblast® and Zirglass® ceramic beads are used for surface preparation in many types of blasting equipment ranging from air pressure projection systems to wheel turbine machines.
Zirblast and Zirglass enhance the coating process
The selection of abrasive media must be carefully engineered to take into account the part design and its function in use. Not only will the surface preparation affect the compatibility with the subsequent processes, but it also may impact the durability of the treated parts in terms of corrosion resistance. Zirblast and Zirglass ceramic beads are specifically recommended when blast cleaning is to be combined with surface preparation. The highly consistent surface texture created by the specific crater-like blasting impacts with Zirblast and Zirglass ensures strongly anchored layers of coating and painting.
High performing and cost-effective ceramic bead blasting
Zirblast and Zirglass ceramic beads efficiently clean undesired oxide layers or remove casting defects while profiling metallic surfaces without contamination. Microblast ceramic beads also are used to clean and smooth metallic surfaces prior to surface polishing processes. The lower roughness imparted by ZirPro ceramic beads helps reduce the cost of the subsequent process operations.