Shot Blasting Machine Maintenance: 17000 Hours With Cast Zinc Shot

Destroying wheel components on your shot blasting machine? Unplanned maintenance from Steel Shot damage? This blast wheel has over 17000 hours of blasting with Transmet Cast Zinc Shot without damage (updated September 2017):

Would you have guessed that after seeing the picture? Examine the blades, which are susceptible to the most wear from constant contact with blast media.

A 15 HP blast wheel throws around 375 pounds of Zinc abrasive per minute.

One pound of RSZ-850-ZA4 (S-280 equivalent) has 172,000 pieces.

That means that in one minute this blast wheel will throw over 65 Million pieces of shot. That’s almost 4 Billion pieces of shot every hour (for 17000 hours and counting)!

High-wear internal components like the impeller, control cage, wheel liners, blast wheel and blades show no signs of wear and will not need to be replaced anytime soon. Cabinet wear as a whole is virtually eliminated. What kind of effect would that have on your shot blasting preventive maintenance schedule?

Production Time Lost to Machine Downtime

How much production time do you lose to shot blasting machine downtime? Machines using Steel Shot and Grit invariably require patching and welding as the blast media eats through the cabinet (see below).

Shot Blasting Machine Maintenance: 17000 Hours With Cast Zinc Shot

Production time lost to machine downtime becomes a thing of the past when blast machine components are no longer being destroyed by the media running in them.

A More Efficient Shot Blasting Operation

Reducing wear on blast machine components improves uniformity of surface finish and increases the overall effectiveness of the shot blasting process. Operators can make less frequent adjustments to the blast pattern with no internal wear to affect it. Control Cages are no longer taking a beating and wheel blades are able to continuously throw Cast Zinc Shot without losing blast media.

Blast machines running Cast Zinc Shot will see longer service life, less downtime, and less frequent replacement intervals for wear components.

Transmet Cast Shot

Transmet manufactures Cast Zinc Shot and Cast Aluminum Shot Abrasive Blast Media in Columbus, Ohio.

Cast Zinc Shot is a good choice for die cast aluminum parts and for shot blasting of magnesium castings. This blast media has an average life of 12,000 cycles and will not cause galvanic corrosion. With a density closer to stainless steel, ZA4 alloy Cast Zinc Shot has the mass to remove heavier flash with a hardness that will not damage delicate castings (90 HK).

Cast Aluminum Shot is a good choice for applications requiring a smooth, bright metallic finish free from ferrous contamination. The 319 alloy Cast Aluminum Shot is an ideal blend of hardness and durability, with an average life of 8,000 cycles.