Use of silicon carbide for air blasting

Hey Kayk,

I'm not personally extremely knowledgeable on the use of Silicone Carbide Blasting Media as I have only seen it used in just one application.  I will defer to someone more knowledgeable than I am on that subject like AL Slater who is traveling today.  Here is a study / technical material done by the University of New Orleans on different mineral abrasives that may be of use.  I would love to personally talk to you about your specific application and it's possible a recyclable media is more cost-beneficial.  Can you share more about the application? type of parts, ferrous or non-ferrious, enclosed room or hand blast cabinet . . . & more.

Please see the link here .Air Blast Abrasive Study 

Regards &  Thanks for Joining the forum  

@craigjsurf

Hey Joe, 

Thanks for your reply. Actually, I work for a company that produces silicon carbide (SiC). We have large business in the abrasives industy (supplying grits for grinding wheeels, coated abrasives, lapping tools etc), but we don't know much about the application of silicon carbide as an abrasive media in air blasting. For coated and bonded abrasives, the main competing material for SiC is aluminum oxide, and it is highly applied as an abrasive for air blasting applications as well. Based on that I don't understand why a simmilar material (alumionum oxide) is widely used for air blasting, whereas SiC isn't much popular. I'll wait on Al Slater repply.

Thank you very much.

Hello Kayk,

There are a few differences between Silicon Carbide and Aluminum Oxide, as it relates to being used in an air abrasive blasting scenario.  They are very similar in weight per pound, depending on size, and SiC has a hardness of 9.5 on the mohs scale, while AlOx registers 9. 

I found the cost per pound to be the major difference between the two.  SiC is roughly $1.68 per pound and AlOx is around $1.01 per pound, depending of course on quantity ordered and freight charges incurred.

A typical application for SiC use is in the etching of glass panels by artisans, where recycling is easier to do and the reuse numbers can reach 10+ cycles.  This can make the higher cost factor justifiable.

I hope this helps answer your question.

Regards,

Al Slater

Hello Al Slater,

Thank you very much for your contribution! I'll try to find out more details about the aplication in the etching of glass panels. By your comment, could I conclude that the main difference on the popularity of SiC and alumina for airblasting is price? Do you think that if SiC was cheaper it would be applied in more applications than the etching of glass panels?

Thank you very much!

Hello Kayk,

Price is such an important factor that every blast operation must be mindful of.  SiC and AlOx are both very expensive to use when other mineral abrasives will do the job for less per pound.  Etching of glass is only one area that uses SiC.  I'm sure there are others.

If recyclability is a consideration, then the cost per cycle used might be brought down to justify cost.  Most contractors will not try to recycle abrasive; maybe because there isn't a system they can rely on or afford at this time.

I would love to hear about your use of SiC, other than bonded.

Regards,

Al

@alslater

Thanks for the clarification. We will try to find some companies in Brazil interested in testing SiC to see what we get. I'll let you know when we have results.

Regards,

Kayk Costa

You are welcome, Kayk. Yes, we are very interested in finding out more regarding silicon carbide being used in an air blast  scenario. We look forward to your report!

Regards,

Al Slater