Choosing the right garnet grit to remove coatings and corrosion

Abrasive blasting is a great way to remove corrosion and old coatings from your surfaces, but it’s important to consider the appropriate blast media. Let’s discuss garnet, one of the traditional forms of media. 

Garnet blasting makes use of an air compressor to propel blast abrasive grains through a nozzle at high velocity onto your chosen project surface. This has a variety of applications, like being used to engrave stone for art, remove thick layers of paint or other substances, prepare a surface for another coating, or polish a surface. 

Garnet actually has the potential to cause flash rusting when used during wet sandblasting. This type of corrosion can happen just a few minutes after blasting a surface. To prevent this from happening, people end up spending extra money for chemical treatments and dehumidifiers, this also takes more time. 

Fortunately, there’s an easier, cost-effective alternative.

The Best Method

10X Engineered Materials has created a line of superoxalloy abrasives that will get the job done and leave your surfaces smooth, clean, and ready to recoat.  Products include KinetiX (high-production grades) and EpiX (precision grades). 

Our KinetiX superoxalloy abrasive was tested against copper slag and garnet to see which one produced flash rusting. 

24 hours after a blasting session, rust began to develop on areas blasted with copper slag and garnet. This continued to progress for another 24 hours. Areas blasted with KinetiX showed no signs of rust bloom.

These abrasives are made up of polymorphous particles, meaning they can perform multiple functions at one time, removing the layers quicker and more efficiently in just one step. Additionally, these abrasives are strong but gentle and will leave the underlying surface unharmed.

When wanting to remove mill scale, using a bag of KinetiX with a grit size of 20/70 or 40/70 is best. Having a PSI no more than 100 will be sufficient for the job. 

For extra hard or tough coatings, it’s best to use EpiX. 

Currently, KinetiX and EpiX are available from abrasive distributors around the US. If you don’t see a distributor near you, contact 10X and we will work with you to get you what you need. EpiX abrasive, which is best for precision applications such as powder coating and medical applications, is also available to purchase directly from the 10X Engineered Materials website.