Shot Blasting Saves Time!

Benjamin Tilghman originally designed and filed a patent for the sandblasting machine in 1870. In 1935, using a similar process, the company Tilghman licensed the rights to build shot blast machines, from the American Foundry Equipment Company. Since then, Shot Blasting has evolved and emerged as one of the most economical and environmentally friendly techniques when it comes to surface preparation.

Diamond Products are the sole Blastrac agent for Southern Africa. Blastrac are now the leading international developer and manufacturer of surface preparation equipment. According to Rocco Van Vliet, European Marketing Manager of Blastrac Europe,

Blastrac closed circuit media blasting machines throw a large amount of steel abrasive media by centrifugal force at the surface. After the steel abrasive hits the surface, the shot blaster recycles the media.

Lourens Road marking (LRM) have been in the road marking business for almost 20 years and have recently discovered the value, and benefits, a shot blaster has to offer. LRM recently purchased a 1-8DPS30 shot blaster after viewing it during a trip to a trade show in the Netherlands. “We were looking for a new piece of technology that would allow us to remove lines without using the conventional methods of manual labour” Explains Kobus, managing director of Lourens Road Marking. “Utilizing paint scrapers and paint remover is extremely time consuming and therefore we needed a solution that would allow us to speed up the process as time is money”.

LRM were recently awarded the contract for the removal of lines in a Woolworths Distribution Warehouse. The project called for the removal of these lines as the warehouse needed to be changed around and therefore required new layouts and markings. In total there was approximately 200m² worth of line removal required. “We achieved approximately 100m per 11minute worth of line removal with this machine which far outweighed our expectations” says Kobus.

“The process and operating procedures were so simple and required a minimum of 2 hours training. We believe that this little piece of equipment has been a great investment into our business going forward” concludes Kobus.