Pete,
You may have opened Pandora’s box with this one.
First, sizes below AGB-18 are next to impossible to count, be it whole glass or broken particles, unless you have specialized, expensive equipment.
Second, I think there is also some confusion as to what AMS 2430 is stating.
Section 3.1.2.3 States: "Glass Beads and Ceramic shot shall be inspected in accordance with 4.3.3 to insure that not more than 10% (by number) of the beads or shot are broken".
Table 2A states the maximum number of unacceptable particles is 5% then a number is listed in the table for each size showing the maximum number of particles.
My question is why does it state 10% in place and 5% in another, or am I reading it wrong?
A better approach to this would be to require dumping the machine and replace the entire charge after 2 hours of blast time. If you are in midstream peening parts you must run test strips prior to dumping to confirm the intensity. After reloading the machine you would again need to run test strips.
