What is vapour blasting?

Vapour blasting, also known as vapour honing, silk etching, slurry blasting, water or aqua blasting, is a process that is a less aggressive abrasive blasting process often used as an alternative to dry media/sand blasting.

The main difference between dry and vapour blasting is the media is mixed with water to form a slurry which is then blasted at the surface at high pressure with the use of compressed air, the addition of water may not seem much but it provides many benefits including the ability to add chemicals to the water to prevent flash rusting, easy removal of residual media after blasting and a much wider range of suitable applications.

The water in the blasting process acts as cushioning for the media, meaning it doesn’t impact the surface and remove base material like dry blasting, instead the weight of the media behind the water is doing the work removing any surface contaminants and oxidation, on a microscopic level rolling the pores in the base material (De-Burring) giving it a lovely smooth finish.

Many different types of media can be used in a vapour blaster but the general rule of thumb is, the more aggressive the media the duller the finish, we specialise in fine glass beads for that bright polished better than new look.

Check out the gallery below for some before and after shots.