What Does
Wire Brush Cleaning Mean?
Wire brush cleaning is a cleaning process performed on a material's surface before surface finishing protection processes are performed. Various types of wire brushes are used for surface preparation.
Wire brush cleaning is often only considered when some minor tasks are left from the blast cleaning process. Brush cleaning roughens the surface of the material.
Wire brush cleaning is used to:
- Remove paint, coating or any form of corrosion
- Prepare for welding
- Roughen and deburr a surface
- Polish by removing deposits
Corrosionpedia Explains Wire Brush Cleaning
In surface modification such as painting or coating, there must be some amount of roughness for the protection material to adhere to the substrate. Different wire brushes are used depending on the substrate. For example, brushing stainless steel or aluminum requires stainless steel or aluminum brush wires to prevent corrosion.
It should be noted that the corrosion resistance of a substrate will decrease with increasing roughness as a result of the increase in residual forces that may lead to stress-corrosion cracking. Pits and crevices can accumulate salts and other impurities that may encourage corrosion. Therefore, wire brushing is often followed by brush coating or painting.
Brushing is eventually not very effective as its results prove to be non-uniform. Brush hardness and the pressure exerted are the main control elements whenever brushing is used in surface preparation. The environment is also important when choosing brushing due to corrosion and hazardous scenarios that may result from spark formation.