Mobile Sandblasting Explained

Mobile blasting simply means the equipment travels to the asset instead of the asset travelling to a workshop. For buildings, structural steel, tanks, bridges, slabs and installed plant, it is the only practical option.

A mobile crew arrives self-sufficient: a diesel compressor sized to the nozzle and hose run, a blast pot, graded abrasive, containment and sheeting, extraction where the work is enclosed, lighting, generators, PPE with air-fed helmets, and welfare. Nothing is drawn from the client's supply beyond an agreed laydown position.

What the site needs to provide is access for a vehicle and compressor, a laydown area, agreed working hours, and details of any permit-to-work, induction or confined-space requirements. On live industrial sites this planning is more time-consuming than the blasting itself, which is why the RAMS is issued in advance.

The sequence on arrival is consistent: set up and protect, contain the works area, blast to the specified standard, verify the finish, collect and remove spent abrasive with the removed coating, and hand a clean, prepared surface over to the coating contractor inside the coating window — on steel, that means priming the same day before flash rusting begins.

Cost-wise, mobile working is often cheaper than it sounds. Transporting large fabrications, plant or machinery to a facility and back frequently costs more than bringing a blast unit to site. Rayco mobilises across all 32 counties from Co. Wexford.