Vapormatt, the world’s leading wet blasting company, is providing precision wet blasting solutions that significantly improve the quality of composite manufacture. Machines such as the Vapormate and the larger Panther wet blasting cabinet offer manufacturers a convenient and consistent means of processing a range of materials with exceptional finished quality.
The Vapormatt wet blasting process offers a number of advantages to composite technology. Firstly there is no damage caused to the fibres; wet blasting is a softer action compared to dry blasting where a few seconds too much exposure could damage the part. Wet blasting also scores over other methods such as peel ply and hand flatting, which cannot offer equally good results on complex shapes.
“The wet blasting process offered by Vapormatt delivers the consistency that is critical for bonding,” says Phil Dawes, Composites Specialist at Vapormatt. “It also provides finely blended recipes for carbon fibre, aluminium and titanium so that by varying air pressure the best results can be achieved on each material with the maximum efficiency. It is this blend of consistency and efficiency, and the fact that the process does not cause any damage to the part, which offers the right process for composite systems.”
The wet blasting process for composite manufacture first gained interest from the aerospace industry and Formula 1, where it continues to be widely used. Now, an increasing range of manufacturers producing everything from boats to satellites are taking advantage of the process.
