Abrasive Blasting

When blasting, a stream of abrasive material is forced against a surface under high pressure to smooth a rough surface, roughen a smooth surface, shape a surface, or remove surface contaminants. A pressurized liquid, usually compressed air or a radial wheel, is used to drive a blasting material (often referred to as a medium).

There are different process variants with different media. Some are highly abrasive, while others are milder. The roughest are blasting (with a shot of metal) and sandblasting (with sand). The medium grinding variants include the blasting of glass balls (with glass beads) and the blasting of plastic media (PMB) with ground plastic stocks or nutshells and corn cobs. Some of these substances can cause anaphylactic shock in people who are allergic to the media.