Leading industrial finishing equipment manufacturer Guyson International has just finished manufacturing the latest in a series of larger than normal manual blast cabinets that passed through their production facility recently. A number of both longstanding and new customers have called on the manufacturer to design for them large, 'special' featured cabinets destined mainly, but not exclusively, for use in the aerospace sector.

There seem to be several reasons for this increase in demand including firstly, increasing health and safety concerns regarding operators working for prolonged periods inside blast rooms and all that entails – having to get suited up, wearing protective (but hot and restrictive) full face helmets and working in a very noisy and dusty environment. Secondly, market changes have seen a reduction in design capabilities at many other blast cabinet manufacturers, resulting in some companies being willing or able to sell only 'standard' products. Finally, there has been a move offshore and away from the UK market of some production facilities, resulting in less flexibility and delivery delays for UK customers.

In contrast Guyson have benefitted by having their own large, in-house design engineering department, equipped with the latest 3D CAD systems, as well as a vast database of photographed (available on their sales teams' iPads) and costed cabinet variations available to demonstrate what is possible and (as Guyson is now in its 75th year) has already been made before, so their customers can be reassured that the design will work.

Special large cabinets made recently include a two and half metre wide blast cabinet for keying the surface of a range of military aircraft air frame components which are loaded externally by crane onto a side-loading support frame and then manually slid into the cabinet's 2.5m W x 1.5m H x 1.5m D blast chamber. Here the large air frame components can be grit blasted with a pressure fed nozzle from a number of convenient armhole locations to achieve full coverage – the cabinet having a total of four large armholes along the front of the machine.

The cabinet was equipped with extra front bulkhead lighting as well as the roof lights and was rubber curtained and lined in white rubber, to reduce cabinet wear from overspray, and help to maintain a high visibility blast environment. The system was completed with a Guyson 55 litre pressure pot, cyclone reclamator and C800 dust collector equipped with explosion relief panel and vertical ducting.

Also recently built was a special pressure fed cabinet, two metres wide, for etching large pattern forms and prototypes. This cabinet featured a large fixed polyurethane covered turntable inside the cabinet enabling the large components to be rotated whilst blasting took place, and thus facilitating all-over coverage. Again the cabinet was fitted with extra bulkhead lighting and multiple armholes to provide high internal visibility and to facilitate ease of movement around the product .

Another two metre cabinet was a pressure fed system installed for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) on aircraft landing gear. This simpler unit comprised a two metre wide cabinet with flat internal flooring and came equipped with the smaller Guyson 27 litre pressure pot driving a blast nozzle. The cabinet again had a similar four large armhole arrangement to maintain flexibility of operator reach when using such a large cabinet.

A slightly smaller Guyson Euroblast 10PF is the most recent system to leave the factory. This was a repeat order, from one of the world's leading providers of products, services and integrated solutions for oil and gas exploration who had a requirement for a large blast cabinet capable of handling long and heavy drill rod couplings whilst blast deburring the threaded area at the end of the rods.

This customer is still using the original Guyson pressure fed blast system made for them over ten years ago but now, to meet increased demand, they also needed an additional blast system, with a twin pot this time and a slightly larger cabinet. They also wanted their original blast system up-rating to a twin pot system to match, which Guyson successfully retrofitted.

This new blast system features a Guyson Euroblast 10PF cabinet, fitted with side loading frame capable of handling their long tubular parts and fitted with ball bearings rollers to facilitate rotation of the component. The cabinet is equipped with a left side cut out above the side loader which is supplied with a number of differently sized templates to accommodate various pipe diameters and also with a blanking plate so the blast cabinet can used as a conventional blast cabinet as well. All delivering maximum flexibility for the customer.

The blast system includes twin 55 litre pressure pots (one for carbon steel and one for stainless steel blast media with a changeover valve) and a single large CY600/16 cyclone. Twin blast nozzles feed into the cabinet, where there is also a manually operated turntable and removable fixturing used for locating the ends of the drill rods and helping to rotate the tubes. A Guyson C800 dust collector completes this system.

Guyson's Sales & Marketing Director Gaye Barber states that “Guyson offers a full machine design service, enabling us to create a fully costed and workable solution to meet our customers' requirements for special blast cabinets. This, coupled with a large demonstration and test facility encompassing the majority of our standard equipment, enables us to prove the surface finishing process and make recommendations as to the most appropriate blast media and process timings to undertake the job, and allow our customers to buy with confidence.”

Customers of manual or automated blast systems are encouraged to submit sample components for free feasibility testing to the company's extensive development workshop at Skipton, England.