Using Crushed Glass in the Oil and Gas Industry

Why Crushed Glass is a Perfect Abrasive Solution for Oil and Gas Businesses

Crushed glass, composed of recycled glass materials, is a cutting-edge solution for semi-hard abrasive blasting. It’s received widespread industry attention because of its environmentally friendly properties and cost savings.

For oil and gas businesses, the most important benefit crushed glass offers is its lack of flammability. It does not catch fire; it does not spark. These components represent a breakthrough in sandblasting safety on oil and gas pipelines.

Our industrial painters prefer this non-toxic abrasive solution because of its versatility, working effectively in wet, dry, and dustless blasting, and safety. We’ll unpack why crushed glass is such an impressive abrasive solution, particularly for our clients in the oil and gas sector. Read on to learn more.

What Crushed Glass Is

Free silica is a common ingredient in solutions for hard abrasive sandblasting. Silica-based blasting materials frequently require multiple cycles to remove old paint and coatings. They also require longer periods of sustained pressure. The microparticles from silica-based blasting materials also can get into people’s lungs. It’s believed to cause long-term, serious respiratory illness.

In an effort to find alternatives to silica-based blasting materials, the industrial painting sector has made a push toward using less harmful ingredients. Known chemically as amorphous silica, crushed glass has emerged as an economical, quick-working, long-lasting, non-hazardous abrasive solution. It’s made of recycled glass, which decreases its ecofootprint. Our industrial painters also found it provides a beautiful white metal finish.

Crushed glass contains less than 1 percent free silica. The crystalline structure of amorphous silica prevents it from sticking to people’s lungs, reducing the risk of respiratory irritation and disease.

Why Crushed Glass Works for Oil and Gas Pipelines

Crushed glass comes in a range of formulas: fine, medium-fine, medium, medium-coarse, and coarse. It removes rust, polishes equipment, strips paint, and cleans. Crushed glass is exceptionally cost-effective because it’s completely recyclable and produced locally, eliminating the need to import it.

It’s a novel, highly potent solution for surface preparation for oil and gas pipelines, which require the removal of older coatings that may be significantly impacted by corrosion. It’s also non-flammable and non-sparking, eradicating the possibility of combustion during the blasting process. Because crushed glass is non-hazardous, the by-products industrial painters are unable to recover do not cause any detriment to the soil.

Our industrial painters like crushed glass as an abrasive solution because it minimizes the amount of dust produced, a critical factor when preparing a pipeline before coating. It leaves no mineral deposit, instead only a light, translucent dust remains. There is also no PH imbalance left on the surface.

How Eagle Eye Services Approaches Sandblasting and Blasting Abrasives

We encourage you to read our guide to surface preparation, which outlines the surface cleaning methods we use and how we profile a surface before coating. It’s our goal to leverage new technologies in abrasive solutions, helping to protect our employees, and our client’s employees as well as provide unmatched surface preparation services. To learn more about how we approach surface preparation, contact the industrial painters at Eagle Eye Services today.

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