Shotblasting vs Sandblasting: What's the Difference?

Shotblasting and sandblasting are both abrasive blasting processes, but the media, the equipment and the situations they suit are different.

Shotblasting propels spherical steel shot or angular steel grit, usually by centrifugal wheel, and in floor and cabinet systems the media is recovered and recycled in a closed circuit. That makes it fast, low-dust and economical over large areas of concrete and steel.

Sandblasting — more accurately air-fed abrasive blasting — propels media through a nozzle with compressed air. It is far more flexible on complex shapes, vertical surfaces, stonework and machinery, and the media can be varied from garnet and grit to soft media for delicate substrates. Genuine silica sand is no longer used because of the respirable crystalline silica hazard.

As a rule: use shotblasting for large flat surfaces, floors and structural steel; use air-fed blasting for façades, stone, machinery, awkward geometry and anywhere a wheel machine cannot travel.

Rayco operates both, so the method is chosen on technical grounds rather than on what happens to be on the van. Contact us for a free survey anywhere in Ireland.