Glass beads play a significant role in shot blasting. They are used for the decorative blasting of the surfaces of aluminium castings, and copper and stainless steel parts, such as generators, starters, steering gears, gearboxes, engine blocks, cylinder heads, engine valves and inlet manifolds.

Due their hardness and ball shape, glass beads can remove dirt, deposits and various oxides from the surface without damaging the treated surface itself. When cleaning by glass bead blasting using the right technology, the beads enable the cleaning of machined surfaces, threads and precision elements.

As glass does not react chemically with other materials, it does not cause corrosion or foreign metal deposits on the treated surface. It is an ideal blasting medium for cleaning stainless steel, aluminium and titanium alloys (non-ferrous and precious metals).

Recommended uses:                                                          

Pre-treatment: treatment of corroded or worn metallic or non-metallic surfaces

Cleaning: removal of existing varnish and paint layers

Finishing: surface polishing of light metal, stainless steel, bronze and aluminium parts

SHOT-PEENING: a process designed to enhance surface strength

Areas of use of glass beads:

No surface scratches

Glass beads are spherical blasting grits with a smooth surface and without sharp angles, whereby they do not scratch the surface to be treated, and enable easy and quick cleaning of the workpiece between work phases. If you used grits with sharp angles, this would cause contamination in the micro scratches on the surface, which could not be removed but by a repeated blasting session. When you blast with glass beads, such danger does not occur and the surface obtained will meet your expectations.

No material loss

They can also be used for the cleaning of iron parts where material loss is not allowed, but surface cleanliness is important. Such parts include engine valves and EGR valves.

Factory cast surface

By blasting glass beads, you obtain a surface resembling the factory cast one. By using glass beads for blasting, you can either bring back a close-to-the-original surface, or turn glossy surfaces into silky ones for cast aluminium, copper and other softer metals.

Precision finishing

If traces of the machining tool remain on the surface after CNC machining, a nice, homogeneous surface can be obtained by glass blasting. It can also be used for chamfering edges and precision finishing after machining.