Surface World May 2020 Surface World May 2020 | Page 50

TESTING & MEASUREMENT
To put these figures into perspective, if a project required an area of
10,000m2 to be blasted, it would take 1156 hours to complete when
using one blast pot set up with typical 8 bar industry settings.
When adopting the optimised set up, it would take just 736 hours –
that’s 420 less hours – equating to fourteen working weeks!
Due to the savings in running time - fuel and abrasive consumption
are also reduced.
When using the widely adopted 8bar compressor pressure with a 3 / 8”
nozzle setting, abrasive was being consumed at a rate of 36kg per m2,
when switching to the more efficient set up consisting of a 12bar
compressor pressure with a ½” nozzle, abrasive consumption fell to just
29kg per m2 - a saving of 7kg of abrasive for every square metre.
Consuming almost 20% less abrasive would not only provide the
advantage of reducing abrasive costs, but also create significant
savings in clean up time and cost.
To measure how the varying set ups affected fuel consumption,
Elcometer measured predicted fuel costs per m2*.
The fuel costs associated with the widely adopted set up proved to
be more expensive, costing £5.40 per m2, whereas the fuel costs
associated with the optimised set up was just £2.39 over the same area.
Notwithstanding the variation in fuel costs around the world, it is very
clear from the test data generated that there are significant savings to
be made in terms of fuel usage when blasting at a higher compressor
pressure with a larger blast nozzle.
Amortisation costs
Whilst switching to the optimised settings has clear and obvious
benefits, many blasters still hold caution due to the high initial outlay
of replacing their current compressor with a 500cfm or higher model
as well as purchasing a new blast machine. Yet, these are insignificant
when considering the overall expenditure of a blasting project.
Elcometer depreciated the costs of purchasing a 550cfm compressor
and a 12bar Elcometer Abrasive Blast System over just one year and
found the relative costs per m2 were minor when compared to
ever-present abrasive and fuel costs.
What’s more, due to their efficient design,
Elcometer Abrasive Blast Machines proved to
be consistently more efficient than competitor
alternatives across the range of parallel tests.
Reducing abrasive consumption
creates significant savings in
equipment and clean-up costs
To find out more information about
Elcometer’s range of abrasive
equipment, please visit www.blast.
elcometer.com.
*please note that whilst UK figures were used, the relative
costs are consistent worldwide
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48 MAY 2020
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