Wet blasting (or vapor blasting) can finish surfaces to the perfect surface roughness (Ra) for sterilization.
Wet blasting with glass beads leaves a surface roughness typically between 0.25 and 0.6µm Ra – the optimum surface Ra for surfaces that need to be sterilized.
Less than 0.25 µm Ra is suboptimal as microbes can effectively 'stick' to the surface and above 0.6µm Ra creates a larger surface area for microbes to populate.
Numerous other advantages are associated with wet blasting both metal and composite surfaces, like the removal of biofilms, uniform surface preparation and mechanical activation – read our Sterilization page for a list of all the advantages.
