This joint standard covers the use of blast cleaning abrasives to achieve a defined degree of cleaning of steel surfaces prior to the application of a protective coating or lining system. This standard is intended for use by coating or lining specifiers, applicators, inspectors, or others whose responsibility it may be to define a standard degree of surface cleanliness.
The focus of this standard is commercial blast cleaning. White metal blast cleaning, near-white blast cleaning, industrial blast cleaning, and brush-off blast cleaning are addressed in separate standards.
Commercial blast cleaning provides a greater degree of cleaning than industrial blast cleaning (SSPC-SP 14/NACE No. 8), but less than near-white blast cleaning (SSPCSP 10/NACE No. 2).
Commercial blast cleaning is used when the objective is to remove all visible oil, grease, dust, dirt, mill scale, rust, coating, oxides, corrosion products and other foreign matter, leaving staining or shadows on no more than 33 percent of each unit area of surface as described in Section 2.2.
The difference between a commercial blast and a nearwhite blast is in the amount of staining permitted to remain on the surface. Commercial blast allows stains or shadows on 33 percent of each unit area of surface. Near-white blast allows staining or shadows on only 5 percent of each unit area.
The difference between a commercial blast and an industrial blast is that a commercial blast removes all visible oil, grease, dust, dirt, mill scale, rust, coating, oxides, corrosion products and other foreign matter from all surfaces and allows stains to remain on 33 percent of each unit area of surface, while industrial blast allows defined mill scale, coating, and rust to remain on less than 10 percent of the surface and allows defined stains to remain on all surfaces.
This joint standard was prepared by the SSPC/NACE Task Group A on Surface Preparation by Abrasive Blast Cleaning. This joint Task Group includes members of both the SSPC Surface Preparation Committee and the NACE Unit Committee T-6G on Surface Preparation.
