Glass beads

Glass bead blasting media is a precision abrasive used for surface treatments without causing damage while maintaining tolerances. It is versatile and recyclable, suitable for high-pressure applications and glove box use. Due to its spherical shape, glass beads easily reach all areas of treated parts, providing a uniform finish and low roughness. Additionally, they are non-toxic and non-polluting, making them an eco-friendly choice for companies aiming to reduce their environmental footprint.

Characteristics

Chemical composition

Available grit sizes 

Packaging 

*Discounted pricing available for orders of more than 100 kg of the same reference.

Uses of glass beads

Glass microbeads are precision sandblasting media for damage-free cleaning , while maintaining tolerances . They are also suitable for deburring applications and satin finish treatment on metal parts made of aluminum, brass or stainless steel. Their chemical inertness (insolubility in water or oil) guarantees non-contamination of the treated parts.

High quality and resistant soda-lime-silica glass microbeads (absence of free silica) made from recycled glass in France .

*Note that you must not exceed 4 bars to avoid breaking the balls and obtaining angular glass. 

This abrasive is suitable for many applications, often chosen to give a "new look" to parts made of metals such as aluminum and stainless steel, it can also be used for stripping, precision shot blasting, roughness reduction, polishing/polishing, deburring, work hardening and satin finishing especially for metal parts. They allow to obtain aesthetic and decorative appearances on jewelry pieces or other decorative metal parts. For example, precious metal foundries use glass microbeads to microbead to remove plaster residues and create a cleaner, smoother and more flawless surface finish. Glass microbeads are also used in cleaning glassware molds to clean tools by removing powdered or "stuck" glass, combustion condensates, oxidation of molds (X17CrNi16-2) ...

Glass beads, which are part of spherical abrasives , are specially adapted for all aesthetic finishes aimed at restoring a new appearance to the part to be treated and for surface preparation.

The glass microbead is also an abrasive for removing dust from 3D printed parts using SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) or MJF (Multi Jet Fusion by HP) powder sintering technologies. This abrasive will effectively remove polymer powder residues clogged on printed parts and create a smoother and more homogeneous surface appearance. It is recommended to use additional ionized air blowers to facilitate the evacuation of all polymer/plastic dust. 

The glass microbead therefore has a wide variety of applications. This abrasive can be used to carry out very different jobs, whether it is stripping, creating a surface condition, polishing or even finishing.

Advantages of glass microbeads blasting

Glass microbeads can be used for the treatment and polishing of all surfaces in many materials. However, they are particularly effective on metal surfaces. Glass beads can be used on other surfaces such as plastic. Indeed, different coatings and/or different surfaces can be treated by glass microbeads. A wide variety of stripping jobs are possible with these glass abrasive grains and the wide range of granulometry that comes with them. The beads are used to treat the surface to be stripped, polish the surface or finish the surface without damaging the object being treated.

Be careful though, glass microbeads are not extremely hard, glass being a fairly fragile material with relative hardness, unlike corundum, the microbead can be defined as a "soft abrasive" and thus break more easily. It can be projected by compressed air in our cabins, however, we recommend sandblasting with a maximum pressure of 4 bar beyond which the microbead risks being damaged or even breaking. This will have the effect of modifying the shape of the media (which could become angular glass ). In this way, the final appearance after surface treatment will be modified. For precise sandblasting work by projection, in a sandblasting cabin, with glass microbeads, it is advisable to apply the recommendations to obtain a uniform rendering and respecting the expected criteria of the surface condition.

Applications

• Impact Treatment
• Microblasting
• Cleaning of rubber molds, glassware
• Deburring
• Satin finishing on stainless steel and light alloys
• Appearance on stainless steel and light alloys
• Post-processing of additive manufacturing 3D SLS or MJF prints

Field of activities 

• Automotive
• Aerospace
• Shipbuilding
• Chemical Industry
• Industrial Painting
• Additive Manufacturing, 3D Printing

What machines can be used with glass microbeads?

This abrasive can be used in all our sandblasting cabins with high performance. The suction system of all our sandblasters perfectly supports the glass microbead by being equipped with the right compressor. In this way, treating surfaces of all types is entirely possible with the microbead which comes to operate a complete stripping, polishing the surface to be treated in a closed sleeve cabin. In addition, all types of coatings can be treated in a closed enclosure in an ARENA sandblasting machine.

Arena sandblasting machines and their manufacturing materials are perfectly adapted to abrasives and in particular to glass microbeads. The various hoses, pipes and joints are also designed to best adapt to abrasive projections, corrosion and the various dusts produced. The nozzles, fittings and their tips, whether tungsten or boron, have composites that are also adapted to sandblasting activities, to resistance to abrasive particles or to the various aggregates produced after sandblasting a metal, plastic or ceramic surface.

What is the best ARENA BLAST machine to be used with micro glass beads? 

The ECO Range , with vacuum, abrasive projection system by Venturi effect, is very suitable for micro-blasting applications with glass micro-bead abrasive. It should be noted that this range of machine does not offer separation of dust and abrasive. The projected glass micro-bead will therefore, after a certain time, be mixed with the dust and the broken bead and will therefore become angular glass. The result will therefore no longer be simple micro-blasting but also stripping because the angular glass tears off material, unlike the glass micro-bead which bounces off the material to be treated without damaging it. The ECO Range is therefore suitable for moderate use and with regular emptying of the machine. 

It will therefore be necessary to move to the PRO range or EXPERT range , to have the functionality of cycloning dust and waste and to have a significantly greater precision of micro-blasting. Indeed in the 1st cyclone the speed of the flow will allow the glass beads to be separated from the dust or angular glass that will have been generated. This will allow to come to project glass microbeads without altering the surface by dust residues or angular glass found in the circuit, the latter will have been automatically evacuated into the waste bags contained at the back of the machine. 

Finally, the 3DX-PERT and 3D PRO automatic sandblasting cabins will allow surface finishing and powder removal for 3D printed parts by SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) or MJF (Multi Jet Fusion by HP) powder sintering. This range allows automatic sandblasting in a rotating basket while maintaining the functionality of separating dust from the abrasive. 

It should be noted that Arena machines, the optional tools and their mechanical components are designed, engineered and manufactured to perfectly support different sandblasting sands, shot and balls of all types and sizes.