Surface Cleaning
The foundation of every durable coating. Abrasive cleaning removes rust, scale and old paint and creates the precise anchor profile that lets primers grip for decades rather than years.
The Process — Sa profiles
Sa 1 — brush-off
Light abrasive pass removes loose scale, rust and foreign matter. Tightly bonded residue may remain. Suitable for low-specification primers.
Sa 2 — commercial
Standard blast removes nearly all scale, rust and coatings; minor staining permitted on up to 33% of the surface. The most common industrial specification.
Sa 2.5 — near-white
Near-white metal blast. Only faint shadows or light streaks on up to 5% of the area. Required by most high-performance coating systems and marine applications.
Sa 3 — white metal
Full white metal. Surface is free of all visible residue with a uniform metallic sheen. Specified for the most demanding protective coating applications.
Key benefits
Removes rust
Atmospheric corrosion and flash rust stripped to clean, bright metal so coatings bond to sound substrate.
Removes mill scale
Hard, brittle iron-oxide layer shattered and removed — scale eventually flakes and lifts any coating on top of it.
Strips old paint
Failed, chalked or incompatible paint systems removed completely to expose fresh surface for recoating.
Anchor profile created
Angular abrasive etches a microscopic peak-to-valley texture, multiplying bonding area for the primer.
Repeatable grade
Automated blast equipment delivers the same ISO 8501-1 cleanliness grade shift after shift.
Maximum coating life
Correct prep is the single biggest factor in coating durability — far more important than paint quality alone.
Recommended abrasives
Steel Grit G16
SAE J444 · G16 · GP / GL temper
Coarse angular particles cut the deepest profiles (90–125 µm) for thermal-spray systems and heavy-duty epoxy coatings on offshore structures and ship hulls.
View specs →Steel Grit G40
SAE J444 · G40 · GP temper
The standard choice for general industrial paint systems. Produces 40–75 µm anchor profiles suitable for alkyd, epoxy and polyurethane topcoats on structural steel.
View specs →Garnet Abrasive
BARTON HP garnet · 30/60 mesh
Natural mineral abrasive for air-blast and vacuum-blast applications where steel embedment is unacceptable, such as food-grade, potable-water, and stainless steel fabrications.
View specs →Get an application-specific recommendation
Tell us your coating system and target cleanliness grade and we will recommend the media to achieve it consistently.