Beyond Drying
The cleaning technique of media blasting has evolved over time to clean, de-paint, and otherwise finish it. However, as concerns increased about silica use and silicosis, new media began to surface on the market. For instance, walnut shell was selected for taking paint off brick or wood to maximize the output of higher cost media while at the same time minimizing damage to the substrate, a benefit that reduced the impact of the costlier materials. Wheat starch and sponge media are some other media, and these have niche applications like stripping aircraft frames, for example, but the wide appeal and viable applications were lacking. Others use baking soda for fast, effective stripping with little or no damage to most building materials, and a chemical ability to deodorize soot- and fire-damaged structures made it cost-effective and profitable. The choice of the correct medium should be based on more than availability, strip-rate, or overall cost of the process to include which produces the least dust, is most productive, and cost-effective.