Garnet is a mineral that is present in the earth and is generally found in river beds and mountain sides.It is extracted from soil with careful processing.Garnet has a grain like crystal structure and these grains are embedded in the stone.It can be obtained from silicate based stones and is formed through natural forces like wind,water,and natural changes in the earth's plates.High quality garnet is produced through continuous erosion and deposition.This is harvested and processed to get garnet abrasives.Garnet is ideally suited for surface preparation needs in construction of oils and gas,ship building,power plant,storage tank,water jet cutting etc.Garnets consists of silicate minerals which have similar physical properties and crystal structure but different chemical compositions.Garnet abrasives provide cost effectiveness,recycling,low dust,human safety,environment friendliness and so on.It is a natural non-toxic mineral which doesn't release any harmful pollutants,doesn't absorb water and is dust free.
Garnet abrasives are widely used in ship building to protect them from corrosion.Surface preparation is very important in coating system and garnet abrasives are used for this purpose.The performance of the coating applied is based on the correct and finite surface preparation.Surface preparation is done in two steps,Mechanical and Chemical.
1.A mechanical way-provides an anchor for the coating
2.A chemical way-allows intimate contact of coating material molecules with the steel surface.
The surface soils affect adhesion properties of metal surface and coating material.There are surface soils with visible contaminants like oil,grease,corrosion products,rubber from boots and non-visible contaminants like chlorides and sulphates.These contaminants are removed for the best surface preparation and garnet abrasives are used for this purpose.
Protective coatings are something that are there since several years years and mostly the protective coatings were implemented by brush to hand cleaned surfaces.The industry related materials such as medium and long oil alkyd and fish oils were generally used to provide the protection coating.They would be able to protect for a longer period if it is put on a common surface that is cleaned by blasting.Abrasive blastings are generally used for the cleaning and roughening of the surface.There are basically four levels of abrasive blasting and these different levels clearly defines the physical cleanliness that has to be achieved on the surface.Of these dry abrasive blasting is considered as the most specified and recommended method for surface preparation and various other conditions must considered by the blaster.The visual contaminants like oil,grease should be removed with solvent cleaning.Ambient conditions must be measured before blasting and if it is not performed immediately after coating then remove the existing coating,rust,and mill scale.This will make the surface roughen-after which one must again check the ambient conditions and perform the final blasting.Temperature,humidity,surface temperature also must be checked before blasting.
The garnet abrasive blasting equipment should be checked before blasting for compressor,moisture separator and air that comes through the hoses.After blasting,remove all the dust particles from the blast-cleaned surface by blowing down the surface either using vacuuming or compressed air and then brush a clean white cloth across the surface.If there is dust then blow again to remove it.Rough surface can stick coatings better than smooth surface and abrasive blasting cleans and roughens the surface.Quality assurance will help to ensure the abrasive blasting operations.Garnet abrasives obtained from reputed garnet suppliers will really help you in getting high quality garnet minerals for your surface preparation needs.