Starblast® is a high-efficiency, low-dusting, low-free-silica blasting abrasive. It is a naturally occurring mineral sand mined in Florida. Starblast® excels at removing mill scale and rust from new steel and is highly effective in removing paints and coatings from most surfaces.

First, look at the money Starblast® can save. In a test of cleaning mill-scale-covered steel to a white-metal finish, Starblast® cost the least per square foot of cleaned metal.

The above figures represent total labor, equipment, and material costs divided by total square feet cleaned.

The shape that saves

Grains of Starblast® abrasive are rounded, subangular and dense, not jagged like sand or slag. Starblast® knocks scale off instead of cutting it. This shape/high density combination means:

In other words, Starblast® cleans more surface metal -- faster, with less abrasive, and with less dust. What's more, Starblast® blasts the surface, not your equipment. The rounded grains roll smoothly through hoses and nozzles, adding as much as three times the life to equipment. The rounded grains also leave fewer embedded particles and won't cause "pecking" around the blasted area.

Product Data

Starblast® is composed of the naturally occurring mineral staurolite, which is mined and shipped from our Starke, Florida plant. It is a state-of-the-art, high performance, environmentally clean, low dusting abrasive. Starblast® is not only low in free silica (typically less than 3%) but it is also very low in heavy metals, chlorides and conductivity. A number of studies have shown how Starblast® can lower the cost of cleaning per square foot versus other abrasives. It is effective in many maintenance applications, especially rust and mill scale removal. Faster cleaning rates, less clean-up time, low dust generation and reduced waste disposal costs achieved with Starblast® can save you money.

If exposure to silica dust and silicosis is a concern, then Starblast® XL may be of interest. It has even lower free silica content than standard Starblast® (less than 1%) while offering all the other benefits. While some abrasives are low in silica, they may contain higher levels of heavy metals. Use of such products may introduce health concerns not normally recognized when evaluating slags as an abrasive.

Starblast® differs from many other mineral abrasives in another important area. Starblast® is a smaller particle with higher density and sub-angular shape. This allows for less abrasive breakdown (less dusting) and higher cleaning rate. This low breakdown rate (approximately 15%) also allows it to be effectively recycled many times, reducing costs even further.

Finally, the surface condition produced by Starblast® can help save money on the expensive paints used to protect equipment. Manufacturers of most coatings recommend 1.0 to 2.5 mil surface profile for best use of their products. Starblast® produces a profile of 1.5 to 2.5 mil on new steel and slightly deeper profiles where a coarser abrasive had been used previously. Other abrasives may produce profiles greater than 3.0 mil. Excessive profile has been recognized as the cause of premature coating failure when profile peaks were not covered adequately. It also requires more paint to cover a deeper profile. Also, some abrasives leave more embedded particles on the surface than Starblast® which can be difficult to coat.

Starblast® abrasives are available in several grades to meet different blasting requirements. All grades contain the staurolite mineral with the differences being grain size. Biasill® is the finest and least aggressive abrasive in the Starblast® family. It is recommended for thin metal pieces or soft substrates such as aluminum. Starblast® and Starblast® XL are the most widely used products. They excel at removing rust, mill scale and maintenance coatings. Starblast® Ultra is recommended for thick, resilient coatings or for coatings that are bonded strongly to the substrate. Coarse Staurolite is the largest grain size and most aggressive abrasive in the Starblast® line. It is intended for applications requiring extreme cutting action. Coarse Staurolite is also used extensively for cutting and etching stone, most often in the monument industry.