In July 2011 Interserve contacted Aerotech Inspection to see if Sponge-Jet could help them save time and money on a surface preparation project on the Type 45 Destroyer at BAE Scotstoun.

Large areas of internal decking with light corrosion needed to be cleaned and prepared for coating. Traditional blasting was not an option – the dust created could potentially damage sensitive equipment and dials already installed in the ship, the cost of any containment to protect these would be prohibitive.

It appeared the used of griding tools was the only option. Hand tooling had been the preferred choice for internal surface preparation for a long time. However this labour intensive method not only proved costly but provided unsatisfactory results.

Using a Sponge-Jet 100HP Feed Unit and 35P Recycler hired from Aerotech Inspection and a mixture of Sponge-Jet Silver 80 and Silver 30 medias Interserve successfully prepared over 200m of internal decking ready for coating. Minimal containment and clean up meant that the work was completed earlier than scheduled and under budget. BAE technicians noted that the quality of work was vastly superior to that of hand tooling and would request that Sponge-Jet be used for future projects of a similar nature.