Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide as Sandblasting Media
Sandblast is the process of propelling abrasives grits onto work pieces like metal parts, wood, ceramic etc to cut, polish and remove surfaces. It achieve work including removing dust, scratch, corrosion, oxidation etc and forming shiny or certain surface preparation. Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide, also called Brown Aluminum Oxide, Corundum, Brown Fused Alumina, is an electro fused synthetic corundum with main content Aluminium Oxide about 95%. Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide powder or grits are ideal material for sandblasting media. We make macro grits F8-F220 for general purpose surface preparation sandblasting and shot blasting and micro grits F280-F2000 for precision polishing and abrasives.
Advantages of Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide for Sandblasting.
1, Hard material suitable for cutting(Mosh hardness 9)
2, Dense material for durable work(Bulk density between 1.4-2.2g/cm3)
3, High strength for cutting and polishing durably
4, Heat resistant(more than 2200℃) proof of high temperature material loss or chemical reaction which may cause change on work piece surface
5, Sharp edges ideal for removal of scratches, corrosion etc.
6, Reused for 8-20 times depending on different conditions
Factors which decides quality of Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide
1, Chemical Content
Chemical content,especially content of Al2O3 and TiO2 decides hardness and strength. The higher Al2O3 is, the harder and the higher temperature it can resist. A grade material usually contains about 95% Al2O3, and some customers also use 90%, 80% etc material to reduce cost. Because of its hardness and strength, A grade material can be reused more times.
2, Sizes
Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide are made usually according to FEPA standard for blasting purpose. FEPA standard defines certain sieve distribution which decide the particles falling into each section of certain diameter range. So it is also called particle distribution. Micro grits like F220,F400 etc are usually for polishing or precision blasting, while macro grits are for general blasting purpose. Mostly used sizes are F24,F46,F60 etc and they can be reused with certain loss and change on sieve distribution.
3, Dust contained
During production, Brown Fused Aluminum Oxide are mixed with dust. Dust will contaminate the surfaces prepared and less times used. It also cause harm to the workers performing blasting job and even explosion in some cases. So during production, we use certain equipments to eliminate dust. In some cases, use acid or water to clean the materials and dry it before packing into bags.
BFA VS WFA for Sandblasting Applications
BFA is abbreviation of Brown Fused Alumina(Brown Fused Aluminium Oxide, Brown Aluminum Oxide, Brown Corundum) and WFA/WA is abbreviation of White Fused Alumina(White Fused Aluminium Oxide, White Aluminum Oxide, White Corundum). These two abrasives are both good media for sandblasting applications.
- For Mohs’Scale of Hardness, it’s 9.0 and 9.5 for Brown Aluminium Oxide and White Aluminium Oxide separately. Both BFA and WFA are prefect media for sandblasting without air pollution
- Brown Aluminium Oxide is better for ordinary sandblasting because of cost advantage. White Aluminium Oxide is high purity and white color, it is better for sandblasting special products with magnetic property and demanding color requirement
- According to application experience, BFA F16-F46 are mostly used for ship body and oil pipeline because surface smoothness is not the biggest concern for these products
Precision products, including mobile shell, computer cover and some stainless steel device, have demanding requirements for color, surface status, further painting after sandblasting, so White Aluminium Oxide F60-F220 are mostly used for this application.

Before and After Sandblasting
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