The Removal Mechanism Considering the Shape and Size of Abrasive Particles in Wet Blast Cleaning of Paint

Recently, wet blast cleaning of paint has attracted attention in remanufacturing processes, owing to its high efficiency and environmental friendliness. However, studies of removal mechanism have rarely considered the properties of abrasive particles; thus, there is insufficient theoretical guidance on the process optimization, resulting in energy waste during the cleaning process. Therefore, the mechanism in wet blast cleaning of paint was researched in this study, which focused on the effects of abrasive particle shape and size on mechanism. The results indicate that the removal mechanisms of angular and spherical abrasive particles are significantly different, and that of angular abrasive particles is not affected by the particle size, whereas that of spherical abrasive particles is significantly affected. The main removal mechanism for all angular abrasive particles is brittle fracture caused by large impact stresses. For large spherical abrasive particles (≥60-mesh), the main mechanism is brittle fracture due to the intersection of longitudinal-through fatigue cracks and interface cracks, and for small spherical abrasive particles (≤80-mesh), it is brittle fracture due to fatigue cracks and impact cracks. This study provides good insight into abrasive particles and serves as a good basis for exploring the process parameters for wet blast cleaning