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Installing Surface Preparation & Coating Facilities for Jarrett Fleet Services

Project

Installing new blast and painting facilities

Client

Jarrett Fleet Services

Location

Seville, OH

Brief

In response to increasing demand for its services, Jarrett reached out to Airblast AFC to discuss a project that would involve building and installing new grit blasting and painting facilities to increase its capacity.

The Solution

Airblast AFC had built up a reputation for excellence in shot blasting and surface preparation through extensive experience working with rail and road transportation companies such as the Andersons Rail Group, AC Transit, and many more. As such, Airblast AFC was the obvious choice for expanding Jarrett’s capabilities and helping it to meet the increased demand. After meeting and discussing the project, it was decided that Airblast AFC would build and install two facilities: a blast room with an automatic abrasive recovery floor system and a paint booth for coating blast cleaned surfaces.

In order to maximize productivity and minimize down time, Airblast AFC recommended an Airflex Sweeper Floor abrasive recovery system for blast room media reclamation. This system continuously recovers abrasive media from the entire floor area while the operator is blasting. It works by allowing grit to fall through a grate into a series of underfloor channels. Flexible scraper blades in each channel transfer the abrasive to the elevator and grit wash, following which unspent media recharges the blast machine.

The blast room measured 16’W x 16’H x 70’D and was designed to accommodate two operators working simultaneously for faster surface preparation. Unlike other recovery systems, the Airflex Sweeper Floor ensures there is no need for the operators to stop blasting and sweep abrasive to a collection point, which means that work can continue on an uninterrupted basis. This helped Jarrett Fleet Services to maintain a high rate of productivity and efficiency.

One of the many reasons that Airblast AFC maintains strong relationships with its customers is that we offer custom solutions, and we take the time to ensure that they perform optimally for the client. In this instance, the bucket elevator was to be installed in an adjacent building to the blast and paint booths. The adjacent building had a floor level approximately 16 inches higher than that of the building where the booths were installed. To ensure compatibility, Airblast AFC created a custom bucket elevator that would provide the intended performance despite the discrepancy.

Jarrett Fleet Services also requested a modification to the blast booth’s floor – it was important that the blast booth floor gratings were strong enough to support forklift trucks. To accommodate this, Airblast AFC installed additional supports underneath to ensure that the blast room could handle the extra loads.

Conclusion

This project gave Airblast AFC the opportunity to demonstrate one of its core strengths: creating highly efficient and reliable facilities to the highest standard for clients with specific requirements. As a result of our extensive experience working with the rail and road transportation industries, Airblast AFC understands the importance of accommodating our clients’ requests, tailoring our solutions to their specifications and working within any constraints that may apply. By ensuring that our designs, installations, and support efforts all meet exacting standards, Airblast AFC is able to build facilities and relationships that stand the test of time.