Blasting Services

What is Soda Blasting?

Soda blasting is the latest technology to safely strip paint and clean most any surface. The soda blaster uses compressed air to deliver sodium bicarbonate based media (baking soda) onto the surface to be cleaned. While at the outset this seems similar to sandblasting, all similarities quickly fade once you understand the process. Sand is a hard, heavy material that can wreak havoc on any substrate. It will pit glass, tear up rubber & plastic and etch metal. Soda blasting has none of that. A properly formulated soda blasting media is made of Sodium Bicarbonate that is manufactured to be in a consistent, larger crystal size. When it strikes the material you are soda blasting the crystal explodes outward and the explosion is the force that strips your target of grease, paint, rust, mold, dirt, whatever it is you are removing.

It is difficult to tell someone about soda blasting without using the phrase "the best part." Why? Because there are so many advantages to soda blasting they are all "the best part!" You want to say:

The Best Part about soda blasting is it doesn't harm the substrate. No metal warping, no flash rust, no more masking of glass, chrome and rubber! What a time saver!

The Best Part about soda blasting is the easy clean up, the media is water-soluble, rinse it off!

The Best Part about soda blasting is how it is environmentally friendly! It's baking soda! Non-toxic, non-flammable, non-hazardous, FDA approved and you can make biscuits with it!

The Best Part about soda blasting is how versatile it is! It can be used in so many applications!

Strip Cars, Trucks, Trailers, Containers, Heavy Equipment Graffiti Removal, Surface Rust Removal, Stain Elimination, Clean Wood and Masonry, Monument Cleaning, Grease & Oil Removal, De-Grease and Strip Engine Components, Fiberglass & WoodBoat Stripping, Aluminum andStainless Steel Cleaning, Mold Remediation, Fire Restoration
Browse through our site to learn more about soda blasting and its benefits. if you want to get into the lucrative soda blasting business and buy a soda blaster give us a call! If you have need of soda blasting services, give us a call

Why Choose Soda Blasting?

"After all," you might be thinking, "I just want to strip some paint/surface rust/grease/bacteria/mold/smoke from this old thing."

To get a good idea of why soda blasting is so good, it might help to understand a bit about how the action of soda blasting is different from other types of blasting. To understand how it is different lets take a look at sand blasting.

We want to remove paint from a fender, let's look at a simplified version of the structure of what we are cleaning. There's not too much to it. You have the metal coated with a layer of paint, in this case, red paint. The paint is thin-thin, only 7 thousandths of an inch thick.

Let's pretend we are going to remove the paint by Sand Blasting. Think about it from the perspective of the paint. That's right we are going to project rocks that are 3 times larger than the thickness of the paint at the fender at a high velocity. The sand is denser than the paint too. The force of the impact smashes and chops through the paint. The sand is harder than the metal as well. Any of the impact force that was not dissipated by the paint is now whacking the metal. Remember this is a thick, steady stream of sand. There is a lot of sand battering the bare metal and the surface ends up pitted and rough. The metal is stripped bare with only a dusting of the pulverized sand covering it's scarred surface. Within hours, the ambient moisture in the air will begin to attack the metal and the process of oxidation (rust) will begin.

I tell you, the thought of doing that to my fender is scarier than a Stephen King Movie. Imagine what would be happening to my poor fender if it were made of glass or wood or brick!

Now let's take a look at what happens when I strip the paint with Soda Blasting. I will assume we are going to use the 100% pure soda blast media sold by us in a Buster Blaster soda blasting system. Why? Because all there is in a bag of our blast media is sodium bicarbonate. Nearly the same stuff as in a box of baking soda from the grocery store, only it is manufactured differently so the crystals are a much larger, more consistent size. Other brands of blasting soda have smaller crystals and they add dusty stuff to the soda, like calcium carbonate or tri-calcium phosphate to make up for shortcomings. We knew what to look for in a baking soda media, and when we found it we looked no further.

A crystal of our blast media is huge compared to the layer of paint. But sodium bicarbonate is much softer and less dense than sand but it is still a bit harder than the paint so it can penetrate the paint layer just a bit and this is when the magic happens. Baking soda has a property called "high friability" do you remember that kid in your grade school class that would go all to pieces laughing any time someone made a joke about flatulence? Sodium bicarbonate is just like that. It loves to go to pieces, that's what friability is. The bicarbonate crystal gets a little into the paint and breaks up. But it doesn't just crumble, it explodes! All of the energy that was projecting the Soda at the paint is released outward and all of the bits and pieces of the crystal are carried along. ripping and shredding into the paint. But, still, the metal is harder than the soda. It isn't affected at all by that battle going on at it's surface. What else is harder than Sodium Bicarbonate? glass, plastic, chrome, rubber, gaskets. Let's face is, Sodium Bicarbonate is that hardest-working wimp you will ever have the pleasure to work with!

When it's all done and my fender is clean there is an additional benefit to soda blasting. The bare, smooth metal has a light dusting of Sodium Bicarbonate. The dust is alkaline. For rust to form there needs to be a slightly acidic pH. The alkalinity neutralizes any acidic component of the air and protects the metal! Pretty cool, huh? Soda Blasting has the same effect when cleaning off mold damage. Molds, and bacteria too, need an acidic environment to survive. When you soda blast you are creating a safe, sterile surface. Still- I'm not going to eat lunch off of my fender!

With my fender stripped of paint, I can now clean and neutralize it with Hold Tight 102 and paint it a new color. The dust from the soda blasting can be rinsed off, it will dissolve in water. If there are any bits stuck in crevasses, they too will dissolve and rinse away. If I had sand blasted, I would have to rinse and wipe and wipe and rinse. I would have to take extra care to make sure there was no grit left in any crevasses. Imagine all of that uncomfortable grit left over from sand blasting. little bits grinding into your floor, in the seams of your clothing, stuck between your teeth. When it comes to final clean up, Baking Soda being water soluble is a blessing. You can only get so much with a broom, being able to easily rinse away any remaining dust is a huge time saver!

Cleaning anything with soda blasting is a vastly superior process`. you can easily remove carbon, grease, oils, gasket material, surface corrosion, paint and coatings from a variety of alloys, plastics and composites without substrate damage or distortion, and leave hard anodized coatings intact.

When you are soda blasting you are saving time by cleaning, de-greasing and de-painting all in one step. What better paint preparation could there be?

The Advantages of Soda Blasting

Cleaning & De-Coating in One Step

Standard abrasive blasting is a dirty process, often loading and even embedding the surface with contaminants (grease, oil, tar & abrasive particles) in the process of removing the coating. Recycled abrasives compound this problem by loading increasing amounts of contaminants into the substrate. Pure sodium bicarbonate blast media effectively de-coats and cleans the substrate in one step; producing a level of cleanliness not seen with most processes. The media is not reusable thus eliminating the issue of blasting with re-used media. Coating adhesion relies heavily on surface cleanliness and a surface profile has been used to offset this lack of cleanliness.

Unique Cutting Action

Sodium bicarbonate blast media offers the unique properties of sodium bicarbonate, the primary ingredient. The softness (Mohs hardness scale of 2.4) and friable nature of this crystal produces a unique cutting action with little or no effect on most substrates. For example, thick coatings can be removed from glass without any etching effect. With proper care, delicate substrates can be cleaned without damage.

No Pre-Cleaning Required

For projects where the coating is covered with grease, carbon, salt or other contaminates, the more traditional methods require the coating to be fully cleaned before blasting. This is required so that the contaminants on the surface of the coating not be driven through the coating and into the surface of the substrate, causing future coating failure.

No Need to Re-Profile Steel

Sodium bicarbonate blast media will not profile steel. When an operator removes a coating from a metal surface, he or she exposes the existing anchor pattern under the coating. Unless corrosion has occurred, there is no need to re-profile the surface.

Reduced Solid Waste

Pure sodium bicarbonate blast media can be dissolved in fresh water. By dissolving the media and filtering out the contaminates, the solution can generally be discharged to POTW treatment systems or open waterways, with proper discharge permits. Waste volume is generally reduced to less than 5% of the original waste volume. With increasing landfill costs and liabilities, this advantage becomes more important every day.

Natural Rust Inhibitor

As long as Baking Soda is on a ferrous metal surface, rust will not form. For rust to form, free moisture and an acidic condition must exist. In most cases, free moisture combines with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to form carbonic acid. This acid releases a free metal (ferrous) ion, which combines with oxygen (oxidizes) to form rust. Pure sodium bicarbonate blast media buffers the acids, prevents the release of free metal ions and prevents rust.

Reduced Clean-Up costs

Lareg grain or coarse sodium bicarbonate soda blast media performs roughly the same level of work (somewhat slower) as sand blasting while producing 1/5 to 1/7 of the total waste volume. Although media costs per square foot are higher, site clean up and residue disposal are significantly lower. Combine that with the lower consumption rates of the Buster Blaster system. The net balance is that total cost per square foot are about the same for both approaches.

Benefits In Waste Disposal

In most non-hazardous applications, the residue from blasting with pure sodium bicarbonate blast media can be rinsed into sanitary drains or sewers, which flush the residue to a water treatment facility, greatly reducing the clean up time. Pure sodium bicarbonate is actually beneficial to waste water treatment systems. For industrial treatment systems, where chemical neutralization is a major cost in water treatment, pure sodium bicarbonate blast media can often save significant dollars in waste treatment.

Increased Worker Safety

The safety of sodium bicarbonate to workers is well understood, since it has been in use for some 160 years. The bicarbonate buffer system is the major extracellular buffer for the human body, thus sodium bicarbonate is part of the body's normal chemistry. Pure sodium bicarbonate blast media is not toxic via ingestion, inhalation or dermal contact, nor is it a skin or eye irritant as defined by EPA and OSHA. Any risk to workers is primarily the contaminate or coating removed during the blasting process.

Removes Odors

The same odor absorbing effect seen in the refrigerator at home is present when blasting with sodium bicarbonate blast media. It not only removes the contaminates, it also reduces the unfriendly odors.

Replaces Dangerous Solvents

Sodium bicarbonate blast media when applied wet is an excellent de-greasing medium that eliminates the use of solvents in most cleaning processes. Sodium bicarbonate blast media does not "dissolve" or "emulsify" grease or oils, it simply coats them causing the grease or oil to release from the surface. It also eliminates the translocation of oil and grease.

Does Not Produce Sparks

Sodium bicarbonate blast media will not produce thermal sparks and is suitable for use in explosion proof areas; including refineries, chemical plants and grain elevators as long as proper grounding techniques are used to prevent a static charge build up.

Improved Crack Detection

When cleaning metal surfaces for crack detection, standard abrasive blasting tends to peen the crack closed or pack the crack with abrasive, making crack detection more difficult. Sodium bicarbonate blast media actually cleans out the crack, leaving it exposed and easy to see.

No Residue Problems In Small Passageways

Natrium products soda blast media is 100% pure sodium bicarbonate, additive free and water soluble. It can be used to clean critical engine components including those with small passageways. Once cleaned, the baking soda residue can be thoroughly rinsed off by dissolving in water. Traditional blast material are not water soluble and if left after cleaning, can pack into small passageways and possibly damage an engine while on operation

Reduce Surface Acids

As a strong buffer for acids and alkalis, sodium bicarbonate blast media eliminates acidic conditions on the surface of the substrate. For conditions with high acid levels, acid rain or boiler fly ash, blasting with sodium bicarbonate blast media will reduce coating failures.

SSPC - NACE Standards

Natrium Products soda blast media will attain a level of clean that will meet the standards of both NACE and SSPC.

NACE 1 (SP-5) White Metal Blast Cleaning

NACE 2 (SP-10) Near-White Blast Cleaning

NACE 3 (SP-6) Commercial Blast Cleaning

NACE 4 (SP-7) Brush-Off Blast Cleaning

Hardness Scale

Natrium 260 Blast Media has a hardness of 2.4 on the Mohs' scale of Hardness. The softness of this media means that it can be used to remove most coatings without harming the substrate.

Media	Hardness, Mohs Scale
Corundum (natural aluminum oxide)	9
Alumina (synthetic aluminum oxide)	9
Garnet ( Fe3Al2(SiO4)3	8
Steel Shot or Grit	8
Copper Slag or other mineral slag	7.5
Quartz (Silica sand)	7
Glass Bead	5.5
Plastic Bead	3.5
Soda (Sodium bicarbonate)	2.5

Mohs Scale of Abrasives

Hard abrasives seven and above on the Mohs scale (see Table 1) mostly remain intact and hence, most of the force is directed into the substrate. Softer abrasives such as glass beads and soda crystals shatter on impact and part of the forces are directed in other directions as the particle "explodes" into finer fragments. Some of the fragments travel along the substrate perpendicular to the initial direction of impact. These fragments moving along the surface do a tremendous job of cleaning.

Fire Restoration

We do provide baking soda blasting services to the disaster restoration industry. Due to its low relative hardness of 2.5 and its exceptional odor neutralizing properties, baking soda blasting is a natural choice for restoration professionals.

Soda blasting removes smoke and soot damage from brick, concrete block, concrete, interlocking stone, wood studs, joist, truss, sheathing materials. It also works exceptionally well on mold damage.

sssBaking soda not only removes the visual damage during the blasting process, but the natural deodorizing properties of baking soda work to eliminate the "smell" associated with the damage. Fire, smoke and the accompanying ash are typically at the high end of the pH scale ( strong bases ), where baking soda works quickly in absorbing odor. The longer that the air in the affected area is in contact with the baking soda, the more neutralizing takes place.

Mold Removal:

Mold Removal Mold removal by baking soda blasting, has turned out to be a natural extension of the use of baking soda blasting in the fire restoration industry.

The soft, angular nature of baking soda allows for quick removal of the mold, while providing minimum impact on the wood surfaces.

We believe that soda blasting should be incorporated into a mold removal strategy in conjunction with a qualified mold removal contractor under the supervision of a mold remediation inspection company. This is not an area where soda blasting should be considered the only step required, and should best be left to professionals.

The soda blasting ( as does any other method of blasting, including dry ice ), just removes the mold growth and mold spores from the surfaces. We feel that the blasting should be followed by HEPA vacuuming, damp wiping ( with appropriate chemicals ), then HEPA vacuum and damp wiping again until a final suitable result is reached, as determined by the testing company.

While dry ice blasting leaves less residue, the process is the same. You may save a couple of hours of vacuuming, but we feel that is far outweighed by use of baking soda blasting, with increased safety to the blast operator, as well as the odor absorption of the baking soda.

Soda Blasting Facts

In the past, the only way you could remove paint or some other unsightly material from a contaminated surface, was to either chip it off, sand blast it, use harsh chemicals, sand it until your arm fell off or your equipment failed. In most cases, after these time consuming, or hazardous methods are discarded, the final solution was just to paint over it and hope no one noticed.

There is now a process, known as Soda Blasting, where a surface is cleaned or paint is removed or coatings of any kind are stripped from a substrate both efficiently and safely. It is very similar to traditional sand blasting yet has the significant advantage of cleaning the surface without causing any harm to the substrate or the environment.

Applications

From the removal of graffiti from brick and concrete to the cleaning of boat bottoms, from the removal of carbon, char, and odors from buildings damaged by fire to refurbishing stainless steel kitchen equipment, from removing oil and grease from engines to removing offensive odors in stairwells, from cleaning washrooms in manufacturing facilities to removing paint from brick and steel, from removing surface rust and paint from cars to line removal off highways, the soda blasting approach has proved to be successful time and time again. The system has been used for:

Paint Removal
Engine Parts
Brick & Concrete
Hard Wood
Odor Elimination
De-paint Boat Bottoms
Anilox Rolls
Line Removal
Surface Rust Removal
Cars-Paints/Surface Rust
Stain Removal
Airplane Parts
Graffiti Removal
Fire Restoration
Marking Removal
And More!

Why Use This Approach?

Equipment is easy to use
Equipment is transportable, in many cases a one-man operation
Set-up time is short
Media is environmentally sensible (USDA Approved as an A1 cleaner)
Media is water soluble, gentle yet effective
Media is safer than solvents, caustics and acids
Media is an odor-eater
Clean up is relatively easy

Now that you soda blasted your project, what is the next step?

I get this question almost daily and, in the beginning, I did not have the correct answers. In the past, I was told many things; from "just don't worry about it" to, "just plain water" or "vinegar and water" (nobody knew the correct ratio) and even alcohol and water. I now know that there isn't a single stock answer to this question as there are many different kinds of substrates that we encounter with soda blasting and each one has its own treatment.

The main question to ask - is a coating going to be re-applied? If so, some sort of neutralizing and cleaning of the surface needs to be done. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has a higher than neutral pH and contains some degree of salt (chlorides). You must have a clean, oil free and pH neutral surface to ensure that you won't have a coatings failure after any type of media blasting. Coating failures after soda blasting can usually be traced back to no pre-paint preparation, poor preparation or incorrect preparation. Baking soda is a wonderful media that allows you to do things that no other media will accomplish, but you need to educate yourself about the media and follow a few simple steps after blasting.

Consulting with coatings manufacturers before application can reveal a wealth of valuable information and help insure a positive outcome to your project.

Here is a sampling of substrates and
what we have found that works after soda blasting:

Metals - Hold Tight 102 is the best all around product that we have found. POR-15 Marine Clean might also work.
Fiberglass - Hold Tight 102 and possibly Salt Away and Salt-X. Also Fiberglass Surface Prep #YMA601 by Interlux.
Wood - Sun Brite Wood Brightener - a citrus based wood bleach. Can be also used to brighten wood and remove rust stains.
Concrete - Hold Tight 102 or Sun Brite Wood Brightener.
Brick, block & mortar - Sun Brite Wood Brightener.
Links to the products mentioned can be found on our "links" page. Additional products that can be identified may be used. Please check with the product manufacturer regarding the proper use and application of other products.

A quick message regarding vegetation:

Baking soda can burn vegetation due to the pH of the product. Flowering plants that are more delicate seem to be more quickly affected. Leafy green plantings and common lawn grass seem less likely affected. Having said this, all vegetation can be affected by baking soda residue to different degrees depending on how much baking soda contacts the surface or ground. Use of breathable tarps to cover plantings around houses and decks works well. Follow removal of the tarps with a copious tap water wash down of the plantings. In areas where tarping is not practical, start with a pre-soaking of the plantings and ground the day before with tap water. Flood all plantings with tap water immediately after blasting. We have even used a lawn sprinkler to keep baking soda residue off plantings and to keep the ground wet during blasting operations. Baking soda is water soluble and use of additive free baking soda, like Natrium Products, will increase the likelihood of a good outcome.

There is no guarantee that you won't burn vegetation with the above mentioned techniques - these are just some ideas that have worked for us. I always caution my customers about the possibility of burning the vegetation. Because of what we can do with baking soda, most customers are happy to deal with any possible side effects.

What is Dry Ice Blasting?

Dry ice blasting is similar to sand blasting, plastic bead blasting, or soda blasting where a medium is accelerated in a pressurized air stream to impact a surface to be cleaned or prepared. But that's where the similarity ends.

Instead of using hard abrasive media to grind on a surface (and damage it), dry ice blasting uses soft dry ice, accelerated at supersonic speeds, and creates mini-explosions on the surface to lift the undesirable item off the underlying substrate. If you want to read all the technical details, see the How CO2 Blasting Works page.

Dry ice blasting has many unique and superior benefits over traditional blasting media.

Dry ice blasting:

is a non-abrasive, nonflammable and nonconductive cleaning method
is environmentally-friendly and contains no secondary contaminants such as solvents or grit media
is clean and approved for use in the food industry
allows most items to be cleaned in place without time-consuming disassembly
can be used without damaging active electrical or mechanical parts or creating fire hazards
can be used to remove production residues, release agents, contaminants, paints, oils and biofilms
can be as gentle as dusting smoke damage from books or as aggressive as removing weld slag from tooling
can be used for many general cleaning applications

Cold Jet dry ice blasting uses compressed air to accelerate frozen carbon dioxide (CO2) "dry ice" pellets to a high velocity. A compressed air supply of 80 PSI/50 scfm can be used in this process. Dry ice pellets can be made on-site or supplied. Pellets are made from food grade carbon dioxide that has been specifically approved by the FDA, the EPA and the USDA.

Carbon dioxide is a non-poisonous, liquefied gas, which is both inexpensive and easily stored at work sites.