Vapormatt to unveil advanced wet blasting system at FIA
On show will be the company’s Puma wet blasting system, which can be seen in operation preparing a range of aircraft components, including cast, machined and composite parts.
Vapormatt’s wet blasting technology has been proven in many different industrial applications. In the aerospace sector, the company works closely with leading manufacturers of aircraft systems and components – an association that began over 50 years ago with pioneering work carried out with Sir Frank Whittle – plus maintenance and service providers.
The latest Vapormatt wet blasting systems use a combination of specially developed abrasives, including silicon, ceramic, compressed air and high purity water. These are mixed in precisely controlled quantities, before being directed onto the work surface via a precision engineered blast gun. This typically incorporates a series of nozzles, each designed to allow the flow of gas and slurry to be optimised to meet the needs of each application.
The operator has control of the pressure, flow and temperature of the process stream, and is able to manipulate the blast gun to produce a range of finishing effects, from the removal of paint, rust, grease and scale, without damaging the substrate material, prior to NDT, to the fine finishing of surfaces for coating, bonding and painting, and precision peening of turbine blades to an accuracy of just a few microns.
The Puma system on show is a compact, manually operated wet blasting system, ideal for larger components such as aircraft wheels. The system is front loading, has a robust stainless steel construction and is designed to be quick and simple to setup, operate and maintain.
The Puma system is part of Vapormatt’s comprehensive series of wet blasting machines. These range from small, manually operated workshop units and self-contained machines for use in R&D facilities, to highly advanced, computer controlled systems, designed to be integrated into automated production lines. The latter include machines such as the Leopard and Sabre, the former of which is available in vertical and horizontal formats, capable of extremely large components but on a small footprint with a unique low level sump, while the latter features a unique hybrid design for edge preparation, surface conditioning and cleaning of cast parts such as turbine vanes.
