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Shot blasting medium cost cheap alternative required

We are doing shot blasting on Aluminium die casting using zinc shots. But the cost of zinc shot is very high so we require an alternative shot that is cheap & also it should achieve a surface finish of 25 Rmax (Maximum).We have tried steal shots which is cheap but we are not able to achieve the surface finish due to the deep impressions made by them steel shots. So we are looking for an alternative.

Rajesh
- Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
2003

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How cheap is cheap? Just about any uniform solid will do something. You might want to look into alum oxide, but there are different grades of hardness. Another possible alternative is organic materials. Lastly, you also have to look at the amount of times materials can be re-cycled in your blast machine to determine cost vs efficiency.

AF Kenton
retired business owner - Hatboro, Pennsylvania
2003

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Please have a trial with non oily steel grits & then check the finish.

Thanks,

B.S.Vohra
- Delhi, India
2003

You can use stainless steel shots. The cost is high but the life is long.The sizes are available up to 1.4 mm and are being used extensively on Al Die cast parts.

Bhandari Sunil
Trading - Indore(MP), India
2003

Use glass shots your problems with finishing aluminum dies will be solved.

Alluri Sreenivasa Raju
- Solapur, Maharastra, India
2004

You can use medium coarse solid glass beads to have what you need.

Kishore Daga
glass beads - Tamilnadu, Chennai
2004