Plastic Abrasive Blasting Media is a synthetic media that is available primarily as three different types – Urea (Type II), Melamine (Type III) and Acrylic (Type V). Plastic Media is a dry, thermoset plastics that is specifically designed for specialty applications such as automotive and aviation for stripping (without warping the metal), boat stripping, die and mold cleaning and other sensitive surfaces where etching could be a problem.
Plastic abrasive blasting is a very low dust application. While having a high re-usability rate, plastic media will break down during use into particles that maintain a sharp angular shape adding to the long-life and value of this media. The higher purchase cost of plastic media makes it difficult to call this media an abrasive blasting work-horse but in the applications where surface and part sensitivity are critical, plastic media is definitely the way to go.
Properly produced plastic abrasive media is manufactured to meet the MIL-P-85891-A specification which identifies the various Types.