Fully Automatic Sandblasting Machine For Metal Surface Treatment

Fully automatic sandblasting machine for metal surface treatment

Regarding the specific matter of sand blasting and rust removal of riveted welded parts, the real views on this issue are completely different between those veterans who have worked in the industry for 20 to 30 years and have rich qualifications, and young newcomers who have just entered the factory. Therefore, it is worth people's time and energy to carefully figure out how to deal with the issue of whether to replace it with fully automatic equipment.

Old equipment is annoying

There is a riveting and welding processing factory in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu. Before 2025, the oxide layer and welding slag on the surface of the riveted welding parts must be manually polished with a grinder every day. With two workstations and a worker responsible for dust removal, the maximum number of processes processed in a day is about 800. Workers often complain that too much dust causes physical discomfort and back pain. Last year, the turnover rate reached a high level of 40%.

The more troublesome problem is that the rust removal work is not done properly. The sand grains cannot reach the corners and the recessed areas of the welds, causing blistering and peeling off after three days in the subsequent painting process. This has kept the customer's return rate at about 12% all year round, and profits have been wasted in this way.

How does a fully automatic sandblasting machine work?

At this time point in March 2026, the factory introduced a fully automatic sandblasting machine in the field of metal surface treatment.

The entire operation process is divided into four steps. The first step is to allow the material rack to automatically load materials. The second step is to use high-pressure sand for spraying. The third step is to allow the material to automatically turn over for supplementary sandblasting. The fourth step is to use the dust removal system to recover the sand. The operator only needs to stay in front of the screen and stare at it, and the equipment can operate continuously for 24 hours.

The three core elements of the sandblasting operation, namely pressure parameters, movement rate and operating angle, have been pre-set in the touch screen interface. When facing steel plate materials of different thicknesses, the system will automatically switch to the corresponding processing program. The equipment itself is also equipped with a pulse dust collection device, which has caused the dust concentration level in the production workshop to drop significantly from the previous 6.2 mg per cubic meter to 0.8 mg per cubic meter. It is now fully in compliance with the relevant emission standards.

What materials can be chewed?

This equipment does not have strict requirements for the materials processed. Whether it is Q235 carbon steel rivet weldments, 6061 aluminum alloy frames, or 304 stainless steel pipe fittings, it can be used for related operations.

As for the choice of sand grains, it can be changed from white corundum to brown corundum. On the same machine, if three different materials are to be switched for processing within three days, there is no need to arrange special downtime.

In Weifang, Shandong, there is a factory that specializes in surface treatment of rivet weldments. This factory mainly performs sand blasting, rust removal and shot blasting. The factory handles both carbon steel parts and aluminum alloy parts. Since going online in November 2025, there have been no further errors or sandblasting. The batch qualification rate of products increased from 91% to 98.5%.

How to adjust parameters so that nothing works

The key lies in three parameters. One is the injection pressure, which can be adjusted in the range of 1.5 to 4 bar. The other is the sand flow rate range, which is 0.3 to 1.2 tons per minute. Another is the swing angle range of the spray gun, which is from 15 degrees to 60 degrees.

For thin plate parts, the pressure and speed need to be lowered. For thick riveted weldments, it is necessary to increase the pressure and increase the flow rate. There is a set of programs stored in the system, with a preset number of more than 40.

Lao Zhou, the technical director of the factory, said something. He said that in the past, everyone tried to repaint based on their own feel. There were ten products in each batch, and there were often two products with the wrong strength. But now the situation has completely changed. Now we query the form according to the thickness of the material, and then input the data. The ten products produced in this way are all the same. When the customer inspected the goods, they never found any faults.

Calculate economic accounts

Calculated according to the old technology, at that time, three workers were assigned to work with a semi-automatic sand machine. Their combined monthly salary was about 22,000 yuan. Calculated from this, the annual labor cost was about 260,000 yuan. At the same time, the annual consumption of sand was about 12 tons.

Let’s take a look at what the new process is about. It is a fully automatic equipment with one operator. The annual depreciation of this equipment is about 150,000 yuan, and the annual consumption of sand becomes eight tons. In this way, the overall cost has really been reduced, by almost 40%.

The production capacity has been increased from 800 pieces per day to 2,600 pieces per day, and the machine has not stopped throughout 2025. Calculated based on the average price of the surface treatment industry for rivet weldments, the overcharged processing fees per year amounted to approximately 3.4 million yuan, and the investment in equipment was fully recouped within eight months.

What kind of factory should I go to?

If a surface treatment factory that performs sandblasting, rust removal, and shot blasting of riveted and welded parts has an average daily processing capacity of more than 500 pieces, handles more than three types of materials, and faces very strict environmental inspections, then it will basically not lose money by purchasing a fully automatic sandblasting machine. But for a small workshop with a daily processing capacity of only two to three hundred pieces, a second-hand semi-automatic sandblasting machine is completely sufficient.

Among the riveting and welding industry clusters in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, the factories that plan to replace equipment between 2025 and 2026 are basically companies with a daily production capacity of more than 1,000 pieces.

When selecting equipment, you need to pay special attention to the two points of sand road circulation efficiency and dust removal sealing, because it is these two indicators that determine whether the sand pipe will have to be cleaned and blocked every day during subsequent use.

When derusting the rivet weldments in your factory, how many pieces can be processed in a day? Please tell us the specific data in the comment area. We will help you make a judgment based on this situation, and what grade of equipment should be selected to use is the most suitable.