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‘Green’ Blasting Tool Uses No Grit

Monday, September 12, 2011

More items for Surface Preparation

MONTI has introduced the MBX Bristle Blaster, a lightweight, handheld power tool designed to provide the same texture and cleanliness as grit blasting without hazardous materials or additional equipment.

The tool has a newly extended Hand-Arm Vibration (HAV) usage limit of 12 hours and has been included in the latest structural specification from ExxonMobil for the surface preparation of offshore steel structures, reports MONTI, a German manufacturer of surface preparation tools.

Without using any other equipment, the Bristle Blaster can remove corrosion, mill scale and old protective coatings with a surface cleanliness similar to SA 2.5 (NACE No.2/SSPC-SP10) to SA 3 (NACE No.1/SSPC-SP5), the manufacturer says. It can restore surfaces to IN EN ISO 8501-1 / SA 2.5 to SA 3.

Features and Performance

The manufacturer says the Bristle Blaster can deliver:

• Surface texture / anchor profile up to 120µm (Rz) / 4.72 mils, with a roughness capability from 40- 120µm Rz / 1.57 - 4.72mils. Applies for non-ferrous metals as well.

• Improved integrity of treated surfaces. The tool is designed to generate compressive residual stress along treated surfaces, providing crack growth resistance, improved fatigue life, and improved corrosion resistance.

• Negligible heat generation, keeping surfaces free of thermal damage and/or heat marking.

• Eco-friendly performance, with low energy requirements and no need for (or production of) hazardous materials.

• Simple, economical operation that eliminates the need for more extensive abrasive blast equipment or transport or disposal of hazardous waste.

• Continuous in-service operation due to ergonomic low system vibration.

• Safety, with low noise, low levels of flying sparks and no need for protective clothing. The Bristle Blaster can also be used in areas where blasting is not permitted.

How It Works

The rotating bristles are dynamically tuned to the power tool, resulting in an impact and immediate retraction of the bristle tips from the working surface.

The bristle tips are designed to strike the corroded surface with a kinetic energy that is equivalent to grit blast media, thereby generating a texture and visual cleanliness that mimics the grit blasting process.

More information: http://www.monti.de/en/industrial.

Comment from Tom Schwerdt, (9/13/2011, 8:25 AM)

"Introduced" a few years ago. That being said, it is a useful tool which produces a very blast-like surface. Best power-tool surface I have seen. There are some caveats: The tool and consumables are not cheap. The tool is not fast. The tool needs to be used the way the manufacturer tells you to use it - if you just hand it to workers without spending a bit of time to actually train them, production will be much worse, and you will just destroy the consumables - because they will treat it like a normal wire wheel, preventing the bristles from actually impacting the surface.

Comment from Michael Beitzel, (9/16/2011, 11:30 AM)

There are also some limitations. It has been our experience that the hardened cut edges of steel plates are not effectively profiled by this equipment.