NOTE: The sponsor of this content may contact you with more information on this topic. Click here to opt-out from sharing your email address with this sponsor. (This link will not unsubscribe you from any other BIC email list).
With the revised rules regarding free crystalline silica, the surface preparation industry is on the hunt for a cost-effective, high-performance blast abrasive that avoids the headaches of current regulatory compliance and ensures the long-term health and safety of its workers.
10X Engineered Materials has launched a new class of high-performance abrasives that eliminates these health and safety risks and provides a leap forward in performance compared with traditional blast media.
The particles in traditional blast abrasives, such as slags, recycled glass, and mined minerals, contain imperfections and fracture planes in the material matrix that limit the abrasive’s performance at the high nozzle pressures and particle speeds that are needed for effective surface preparation. The particles tend to break along these fracture planes when they impact a surface at high speed, which dissipates the kinetic energy of the particle rather than efficiently delivering it to the surface being treated. These unavoidable particle imperfections waste fuel, time, and money. They also create dust and the health hazards associated with it.
Most abrasives, particularly abrasives that are mined, contain crystal structures that were formed under the Earth’s heat and pressure over millions of years. Since silicon dioxide is among the most common minerals in the Earth’s crust, it is often present in crystalline form (mostly quartz) in mineral abrasives. When mineral abrasive particles break during a blasting process silicon dioxide microcrystals (free silica) are released as respirable dust that may be inhaled deeply into the lungs of workers. Silicon dioxide crystals cause silicosis, which is permanent damage and scarring of the lungs. It is for this reason that OSHA and other regulatory bodies have imposed permissible exposure limits (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica.
10X Engineered Materials has introduced a new class of abrasives that are comprised of tempered, amorphous particles. Amorphous particles are equally strong in all directions, resist breaking, and generate far less dust from impact with a surface. Amorphous by its very definition means that both the particles themselves and the low levels of dust they produce on impact with a surface are completely free of potentially hazardous microcrystals, including regulated crystalline forms of silicon dioxide. Just as important, the energy resources spent in compressing air and accelerating the abrasive particles onto a surface are not lost to particle fracture. The energy is delivered to the surface where it is needed. In fact, the cleaning speed and surface finish of 10X abrasives continue to improve as nozzle pressure is increased, unlike traditional abrasives whose performance is known to taper off from particle fracture and energy loss as pressure is increased.
The unique characteristics of 10X abrasives combine to deliver faster job completion, higher work output, where less abrasive media is consumed, and the extremely high costs of coating failure and rework are minimized. When the costs associated with health and safety and regulatory compliance are factored in, the value of using 10X abrasives is unmatched in the marketplace. No other mineral abrasive material, particularly abrasives that are mined from the Earth, can claim that they are completely free of hazardous crystalline content and contain virtually zero leachable heavy metals. We invite you to learn more about 10X Engineered Materials and put 10X abrasives to the test in your operations.
For more information call 260-209-1207 or visit 10Xem.com.
