Armex and Wet Technologies showed off their Wet Tech Process at the MRO Americas event in Dallas last week. The process is dust free and features a closed loop filtration system. The demonstration showed the process using Armex baking soda abrasive but can also be used with other spherical and angular abrasives such as glass beads, aluminum oxide and plastics. In the demo with the Armex baking soda, a thorough fresh hot water post-rinse dissolved any remaining baking soda leaving only the clean part. The process can be used for descaling, cleaning, etch for bonding, to strip coatings and custom profiling. One particularly interesting feature was the controllability of the baking soda blast. The example piece had both a paint and primer and Delia Downes, product manager, showed that the piece could be taken down to the primer level leaving the primer in tact or, if desired, down to the metal removing both the paint and the primer. Baking soda is a natural, water-soluable, non-toxic compound with no toxic fumes or silica dust. The Wet Technologies “wet tech” process uses a glove box with the baking soda slurry driven by a high volume pump and regulated compressed air to achieve that control.