The Wet Blast Phosphating Plant

In addition to these objectives, the demand from the automotive industry as a whole for this type of component was increasing, and the requirement was for it to be phosphated prior to bonding whilst still keeping the cost at an acceptable level. To achieve the improved quality and reduced cost requirements the wet blast phosphating plant had to operate continuously and automatically process the metal parts for phosphating. 

The plant has two major processing sections, the wet blast section and the phosphate treatment section. 

The wet blast process is one of the world s most versatile, efficient and economical processes for metal cleaning and finishing, replacing costly chemicals and the need to sandblast. It saves hours of messy cleaning and eliminates health and environmental hazards associated with strong chemicals and dust from conventional blasting methods. 

The component surfaces are bombarded by a recirculating high volume flow of water borne particles (normally abrasive or glass beads) contained within the cabinet. 

By adding a degreasing agent to the blasting slurry, any oil and grease on the metal part s surface is completely removed thus providing a clean component for presentation to the phosphating section. 

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Substrate Preparation Methods 1.4.5 Advantages of the Wet Blast Phosphating Plant... 

The wet blast phosphating plant is fully automated which means that once the initial set up is complete, the repeatability of the process ensures a consistent quality of component after phosphating. In an alternative system where a barrel transfers components from one process to the next the inconsistency of time in each stage means that there could be some inconsistency in the end result, which is not the case with the wet blast phosphating plant. 

The Wet Blast Phosphating Plant Can Process Any Type of Material... 

The automatic nature of the wet blast phosphating plant means that once loaded the machine will complete the process automatically allowing the operator to carry out other tasks at the same time. This may even be operating more than one wet blast phosphating plant because the small footprint of this machine will allow two of these machines to be located in the area normally allocated to a conventional process. 

Any shape of component can be processed throngh the wet blast phosphating plant without the possibility of any liqnid remaining inside the component. The barrel in the machine has... 

With the wet blast phosphating plant, only the work pieces and not the barrels transfer, thus reducing the amount of rinse water consumed. The volume of the rinse water consumed is proportional to the amount of chemical liquid brought into the rinse water vessel. For the same reason, that only the work pieces are transferred, the amount of chemical liquid consumed is relatively small. 

Abrasive Developments have, in conjunction with their Japanese licensee, developed a wet blast phosphating plant that raises the quality standard within the industry. The solution achieved delivers high quality components from an automatic machine that combines both the cleaning and phosphating processes. The cleaning section benefits from the unique degreasing and surface treatment properties of the VAQUA process. 

Yamashita had two main objectives to achieve from the development of a wet blast phosphating plant ... 

The wet blast section connects with the phosphate treatment plant and therefore the metal work pieces are treated with phosphate immediately after blasting. 

During transit from the wet blast section to the phosphating plant the work pieces are covered with water so eliminating the possibility of oxidation of the components. A rust inhibitor in the blast system also prevents the oxidation of the components. 

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