Plastic Blast Media

Plastic Media, Plastic Blast Media or Plastic Stripping Media was first introduced in the mid-1980’s by the United States military to provide an environmentally acceptable alternative to chemical strippers.

Utilising spent plastic buttons from military uniforms, it was noticed that the media was soft enough to not cause damage on the substrates, but aggressive enough just to remove paint and coatings, without peening or damaging the surface or substrate.

Unlike chemical strippers, plastic media was found to be biodegradable, non-toxic and non-polluting and the process was accepted as the ideal method of achieving delicate surface preparation for a wide variety of materials and components

At low pressures it was also observed that you were able to re-use and recycle the plastic between 3 and 12 times, depending on the hardness of the plastic – PBM, soon acquired a reputation as the ideal abrasive for the environmentally conscious blaster.

Several incarnations later, plastic media has developed into an abrasive that is used worldwide, and has many different types, gauged by the hardness of the raw material.

Raw material continues to be sourced from recycled fully cured moulding for most types of media. The major medias used are Type II (Urea),  Type III( Melamine) and Type V (Acrylic) marketed under the Avialite brand name..

A member of the Mac’Ants Group,  Avialite Plastic Medias was established in 2003, to complement the other abrasives and surface preparation services offered by the Group since the 1970’s.

Manufactured in the United Kingdom, we are proud to have world class facilities and are now among the World’s largests plastic media manufacturers supplying products to over 50 countries across the globe.

Mac’Ants employs a high calibre technically experienced production team – and, together with our professional sales force, we have created a capability to service an ever-growing market for an efficient and viable alternative to chemical stripping processes, in a vast array of industrial applications.

Among the many benefits of the Mac’Ants Avialite range are its low breakdown rate, low dust and accuracy of sieving which ensures exact particle size control and distribution. This can be critical on aerospace or military applications, and has resulted in many accolades including the US Military P-85891a standard and the Rolls Royce CSS227 approvals.

Each type of plastic media is available in a range of standard sizes with special grades on request. As from 2004 Mac’Ants are the ONLY EUROPEAN MANUFACTURER to be approved to US Military specification P-85891A and Rolls-Royce CSS227 for both Avialite Type II - urea and Avialite Type V – acrylic plastic medias – details of this material are available on request.