And like everyone else, they're seeing a regulatory clampdown on abrasive blasting. Lever's company first focused on the marine industry, but today 40 percent of its projects are in the traditional industrial maintenance field. We've got a contract for two bridges in Florida, and we've had specification-writing meetings with many other state highway departments. They're definitely interested in what we're doing. Most industrial jobs performed with waterjetting, he said, don't involve total paint removal, but blasting down to a solid coating layer, with rusted patches cleaned to bare metal.
Industrial customers have the same reasons as ship owners for choosing liquid fury over sandstorms.
Certain high-performance coatings especially lend themselves to removal by water power. Take thick elastomeric coatings, for example. They tend to absorb abrasives, dissipating their energy and slowing down production. A ferocious ray of water at a 45-degree angle, however, can hydraulically lift them off in a jiffy. Nuclear power plants represent a special market for waterjetting, said Earl Bowery, new products specialist at Carboline Co. in St. Louis.