Vapormatt has announced that its Sabre wet blasting machine has been installed at coating specialist Ionbond's demonstration centre in Switzerland. Ionbond, one of the largest providers of hard, wear resistant and low friction coatings, offers PVD, CVD and PACVD services and equipment worldwide. The demonstration centre features best-in-class equipment, and therefore further underlines Vapormatt's position as an industry leading provider of edge preparation and precoating technologies for cutting tools.

Joe Haggerty, CEO at Ionbond, commented: "Wet blasting is the preferred option for deburring and surface finishing for coating specialists. Vapormatt's Sabre enables excellent controllability and reproducibility during the process. This is essential in aerospace, medical and tooling manufacture where quality needs to be both consistent and measurable. For this reason it is only fitting that the Sabre joins other innovative and industry-leading technology as a valued addition of our demonstration centre."

The Sabre was developed in response to high customer demand to serve three new user groups, offering small to medium volume manufacturers, coating centres and R&D facilities a cost-effective, high performance wet blasting system to significantly enhance tool life through edge preparation and precoating processes.

The unique nozzle arrangements of the Vapormatt Sabre focuses blast guns on the critical faces and cutting edges, delivering consistent and controllable results. This ensures total coverage of tools, offering edge radii within +/-5µm tolerance of specification and a HF1 surface finish that will dramatically improve coating adhesion. With the option to fit both Y and X axis nozzle arrangements the Sabre not only offers great customisation for the user but also provides hybrid functionality, making it possible to process round shank tools to hobs and saw blades to cutting inserts in one system.