Does shot blasting pollute the environment?

Industrial shot blasting in an enclosed machine is a process with very low environmental impact when correctly applied. Unlike sandblasting with silica sand — which generates large volumes of toxic dust and difficult-to-manage waste — shot blasting with metallic shot in automatic machines operates in a closed circuit: the abrasive is continuously recovered, cleaned and reused.

The process generates two main types of waste: the fine dust captured by the dust collection system (mixture of mill scale, rust and worn abrasive) and the fine shot discarded in the separator. Both are dry solid wastes managed according to local environmental regulations — no liquid effluents or gaseous emissions.

The industrial dust collection system is the key to environmental control. A correctly sized dust collector retains the fine particles generated during the process before they reach the exterior. High-efficiency cartridge filters reduce emissions to levels well below the limits established by environmental regulations in Argentina, Brazil and the region.

Sandblasting on site — traditional sandblasting — does have greater environmental impact: it generates silica dust, larger volumes of waste and is difficult to contain in open spaces. For this reason, the global trend is to replace it with portable closed-circuit machines that recover the abrasive and contain the dust generated.