It’s always necessary to go for surface preparation when you are deciding to renovate your surface. It’s an important process before applying any paint, coating, or doing any treatment. Surface preparation helps in good adhesion of paint or coating to prevent any corrosion, peeling or leaks later on. It helps in removing contaminants and other types of particles from the surface so that the paint can be applied well and uniformly. Surface preparation is important in removing pre-existing coatings, residue, welding, repair, surface imperfections, organic matter, oxidation, and other contaminants. This can be done mechanically or chemically. Let’s have a look at how surface preparation in Singapore takes place.
Different techniques for surface preparation depend upon the type of material to be prepared such as aluminum, concrete, plastic, steel, and other alloys and wood. However, the techniques involved for each surface are different; they tend to follow some set of steps for surface preparation.
Surface preparation in Singapore:
- The cleaning stage:
The cleaning stage is the first necessary stage of preparing the surface. It is done to clean the contaminants, dust, dirt, and grease from the surface so that the adhesion of proper paint or coatings is possible. It can be done with the help of detergents and water or mechanically through sanding or scraping.
- Removing of old coatings:
Old coatings must be removed before applying new and fresh coatings. If this removal of the old coating will not be done, it will damage the new coating. It will make the new coating peel, flake, or bubble to continue beneath the covered layer.
- Roughening:
Roughening the surface is important in some cases to help in the proper adhesion of the paint. This can be done with the help of sandpaper, grit blasting, or by using other abrasives.
- Priming:
It is a special coating that helps in the bonding of the top coat to properly stick to the surface. It helps in preventing early corrosion and other kinds of damage to the surface.
- Change the chemical composition of the surface:
The chemical composition of a surface tells you about its interaction with other materials. Changing the composition will allow the bonding to get better.
- Make sure that the newly prepared surfaces are dry:
If newly prepared surfaces are not dry before painting, the coat of paint will not adhere to the wet surface and the paint will flake off. Pin-holes develop if moisture is trapped in wet-applied coatings and their surfaces. Moisture can result in bad application of paint. So make sure that the surface is well dried before the coating of paint.
These are some simple stages of preparing the surface but the best possible way to clean bigger and metal surfaces is a process called sandblasting.
Sandblasting can help you achieve the desired surface preparation in Singapore. This method of cleaning is ideal for surfaces like metal, concrete, wood, and brick. It can remove anything from your surface such as graffiti, paint, rust, and other types of contaminants making your surface clean and smooth at the end of the process. Sandblasting is the process that involves compressed air to project abrasive materials onto the surface to remove contaminants from the surface to prepare it for coating and painting. The method of sandblasting is a useful and effective method of cleaning, restoring, and preparing surfaces for countless applications. Not only does it remove dust and other contaminants but this process is also used to create textures and patterns on the surfaces.
Methods of surface preparation:
- Mechanical method: this process involves physical force to remove dust and contaminants from the surface which includes sanding, grinding, blasting, and wire brushing.
- Chemical method: this process involves using chemicals to prepare the surface. This can be applied through immersion, spray, or manual application. But they are dangerous to health and need strict safety measures. Although they may reduce processing time.
- Thermal method: As the name suggests, this process involves heat to clean and prepare the surfaces.
Types of surface preparation:
There are different types of surface preparation in Singapore. To choose the type of surface preparation you need to know which kind of material you are working on and what your desired outcome is.
- Sandblasting: this process uses an abrasive that is projected onto the surface with the help of compressed air. It works best to smooth the rough surface and roughen the smooth surface while removing the contaminants. Sandblasting is further categorized into bead blasting, soda blasting, and shot blasting. Sandblasting is used for hard surfaces like concrete or steel. In Shot blasting, small metal balls or beads are used instead of sand. These abrasives make it easier to use them on delicate or softer surfaces as they are gentle.
- Abrasive blast cleaning:
Other than Sandblasting, abrasive blasting is done in the same way but with the help of abrasive for surface preparation in Singapore. Different types of abrasive jet particles are used. There are further types of abrasive blasting that include: light blast cleaning, industrial blast cleaning, commercial blast cleaning, near white blast cleaning, and white metal blast cleaning.
- Grinding:
A rotating abrasive wheel is used in this process to remove the contaminants and smooth the surface for coating. It is also used for metallic and concrete surfaces.
- Power washing:
This process uses a strong pressured stream of water to clean the surface. This is used for general cleaning to apply paint neatly and uniformly.
- Acid etching:
In this process, acids are used to clean the surface and give the surface a rough texture. Remember to use this type of surface cleaning on hard surfaces like concrete or metals.
- Water-jetting:
This process also uses a strong stream of water to clean the surfaces. It removes contaminants and also gives the surface a rough texture. This is a good way to clean surfaces that cannot be sandblasted such as lead paint or asbestos.
- Solvent cleaning:
As the name suggests, this process involves solvents to clean and prepare the surface. The solvents are used to clean grease, oil, and paint. It is very important to choose a suitable solvent according to the surface you are working on so that it doesn’t damage your surface while cleaning.
- Flame cleaning:
This process uses a flame to clean the surface of contaminants. It is mostly used on steel. It uses the oxy/gas flame that is passed over the surface. The heat helps in removing the rust scales from the surface. The heat causes the rust scales to flake off. This is not so effective type of cleaning and requires hand tool cleaning alongside for an effective cleaning. One drawback of flame cleaning is that it causes damage on the reverse side of the surface being prepared.
Winding up:
As we can see surface preparation is an important part of cleaning the surface before any kind of process such as coating, painting, or welding. The more the work done on surface preparation, the more labor will charged for it. Sometimes 2 or 3 types of surface preparation are necessary to achieve the desired surface. You must be well aware of the techniques and types of surface preparation in Singapore so that you can choose them according to the nature of the material to be prepared. Whichever type you choose, surface preparation is the most important part of the effective adhesion of new coatings.
