Portable Abrasive Blasting

There are two ways to abrasive (sand) blast using a portable system - pressure blasting and suction or gravity fed blasting. Both systems have advantages and the choice is based on the application and the usage. A variety of dry blast media can be used with either blasting method. As always, it is important to make sure the nozzle size being used is proper for the media grit size being blasted.

Suction or gravity fed blasting involves sucking or pulling media from an open container using a blast gun. The air jet inside the gun passes high velocity air over the media pick-up hose 'pulling' the media out of the nozzle with the air. This type of system is inexpensive and simple to use but the process is inefficient and takes a long time. This type of process is designed for small jobs.

Portable pressure blasting requires loading a pressurized pot with media that is forced through the hose and the nozzle. These types of systems are designed with a wide range of pot sizes (with a large cost range) and can be used with many different sized nozzles. Pressure blasting is very efficient and is the absolute choice for industrial and commercial (heavy duty) blasting applications. For industrial-grade portable pressure blast systems we prefer ALC.