Glass bead blasting: Ferrite-free, gentle and strong

Glass beads are an iron-free blasting medium which is suitable for components from the food industry and container construction, for example. Here, a ferrite-free abrasive is required which does not react with other materials.

Ferrite-free please! Many components from the food industry and container construction - or even stainless steel objects - require iron-free abrasives that do not react with other materials. The solution: glass beads. The microspheres clean safely and reliably, protecting the surface while producing a silky-matt finish.

Surface specialist KST Kugel-Strahltechnik uses glass beads to remove machining marks, impurities and welding discolorations. And to eliminate metal oxidation on the surface. The process produces a convincing satin finish on stainless steel or aluminum structures, housings, racks, vessels and flanges. "The result is extremely uniform - we achieve an absolutely homogeneous surface when glass bead blasting. Another major advantage is that the microspheres do not trigger any chemical reaction with other materials and do not cause any corrosion on the component or workpiece," explains KST Managing Director Marco Heinemann.

At 6 on the Mohs scale, i.e. around 800 HV, glass spheres are a relatively hard and efficient abrasive. And yet gentle: Their spherical shape reliably prevents damage to the surface. "In addition, surfaces blasted with glass beads are glare-free because they refract the incident light," says Heinemann.

The KST team uses a special blasting cabin for ferrite-free processing with glass beads. Its waffle floor system for blasting medium preparation reduces the dust content of the air - thanks to high extraction performance. This creates favorable working conditions and a good view of the workpiece. The sustainable recirculation of the abrasive through a cyclone separator, in which the separation of reusable glass beads and dust takes place, is environmentally friendly and reduces waste. (OM-4/23)