Guest: Reggie Richey, BDM with Allstream Services & Rental
www.goallstream.com (Not a sponsor)

Ultra High-Pressure water blasting (also called water jetting), or UHP water blasting, is simply the practice of surface preparation using highly pressurized water to removing existing coating systems or contaminants from a substrate. Sometimes this is achieved by adding in abrasive materials at high pressures onto a substrate surface.

Ultra high-pressure water jetting (defined by the SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings as pressures exceeding 25,000 psi) can be used to remove rust, resins, chemical residues, paints and epoxies, all without the disposal measures necessitated by blasting with chemicals, solvents and abrasives. This makes the practice an attractive option in many industries globally.

Often, ultra high-pressure water jetting is less expensive than alternative methods. This is because the costs associated with recollecting large amounts of abrasive material can become quite high. Because fewer potentially harmful materials are involved in the process, there are fewer issues pertaining to containment and fewer relevant industry regulations.

Environmental friendliness is one of the main attractions of removing coatings via the practice of ultra high-pressure water jetting. Especially in potentially sensitive settings, UHP water jetting reduces the possibility of introducing waste elements into the environment. The use of abrasives can produce a good deal of waste from the blast media, paint debris and rust products, but these byproducts are reduced with UHP. This makes the practice especially attractive for work in the marine industry.

Lead remediation jobs are also prime opportunities for the use of UHP water jetting. Harmful dust is eliminated and, since lead chips don’t mix well with water, the remnant can easily be filtered out before the water is sent for treatment.

Also, when blasting around sensitive machinery involving many moving parts, grit from abrasive blasting has the potential to affect the performance of that machinery. Pure water blasted at high-pressure is a sensible alternative in these situations as well.

If you find content like this valuable and have topic recommendations, please email me at Jim@JimKunkle.com

свернуть