High-carbon steel shots are produced by melting scraps—referred to as manufacturing waste pipes, profiles, sheets, and extra-grade scrap—with carbon, manganese, and silicon supplements in an induction furnace at 1600–1650 °C, followed by water cooling after atomization. Post-casting, the shots are annealed at a specific temperature in tempering furnaces and quenched in water to form a martensitic structure. At this stage, the hardness of the shots is around 63 HRC. Through subsequent heat treatment, the hardness of the martensitic steel shots and grits can be reduced from 63 HRC down to 40 HRC in tempering furnaces.
The fundamental principle in blasting is that the hardness of the blasting shots and grits used must be at least 3–5 HRC harder than the blasted surface. This ensures that the required surface cleanliness and roughness can be achieved faster and with the desired specifications. Using shots with a lower hardness than the blasted surface prolongs the blasting time and fails to achieve the desired cleanliness. This leads to increased labor and energy consumption in the blasting process. Blasting media accounts for only 10–15% of the total blasting process cost. The remaining 85–90% consists of labor and energy expenses. For this reason, selecting the material with the appropriate hardness and grain size is of critical importance for process costs. The martensitic structure is a production method that enables manufacturing within hardness values ranging from 40 to 63 HRC.
Application Areas Foundries, Forging Shops, Steel Mills, Machinery Manufacturing, Automotive Sector, Rolling Mills, Shipyards, Railway Sector, Structural Steel Sector, Granite Sector, Metal Industry
