Spent abrasive in the Blast room can be recovered in multi ways. However, following arrangements are more common.
a.) Manual Sweeping : The spent abrasive is manually swept from the Blast Room Floor and then it is refilled in Portable Abrasive Blaster for recycling.
b.) Semi Automatic Recovery (Pneumatic) : The spent abrasive from the blast room floor is swept and pushed into a corner where the abrasive is collected in a feed hopper and from the feed hopper the abrasive is pneumatically lifted through elevator pipe and collected in a storage hopper from where it is gravitationally fed to the Portable Abrasive Blaster. Therefore abrasive recovery unit model ‘KU – AR’ is cheaper model and save the time for transporting and loading of the abrasive. This unit pneumatically lifts the abrasive media and also filter and separates out the fines and oversized particles.
c.) Semi Automatic Recovery (Mechanical) : In this arrangement, a motorized cross screw conveyor with hopper is installed in a pit. At floor level suitable grill is provided over the screw conveying hopper. The spent abrasive from the Blast Room floor is swept and poured into screw hopper. The screw conveyor carries the media to the boot of the Bucket Elevator situated outside the Blast room. From the boot, bucket elevator lifts the abrasive.
d.) FULLY AUTOMATIC RECOVERY (Pneumatic) : In this arrangement the total floor is provided with mini hoppers covered with floor grill. The bottom of all the mini hoppers are connected through piping to a main pipe. A suitable vacuum pump of appropriate capacity is installed outside the Blast Room and is connected to a main pipe from where abrasive is pneumatically sucked and transported to the storage tank situated at a suitable height where abrasive is screened for fines / oversized and usable abrasive is fed to the Portable Abrasive Blaster. The pit depth required to install the mini hopper is very small and therefore it is also known as ‘Pit Less’ media recovery system.
e.) FULLY AUTOMATIC RECOVERY (Mechanical) : In this arrangement the total floor is provided with numbers of motorized longitudinal screw conveyors with hoppers and a motorized cross screw conveyor with hopper installed under the pit. The full floor is provided with the grill. The spent abrasive from the Blast Room Floor is conveyed through longitudinal screw conveyors and subsequently through Cross Screw Conveyor to the boot of the Bucket Elevator situated outside the Blast Room. The Bucket Elevator lifts the abrasive for subsequent screening / separation and further feeding to the Portable Abrasive Blaster. This arrangement is also known as Full Floor media Recovery System.
