Patent ID: 8920217

Claim:
A centrifugal blasting wheel comprising: a rotatable annular wheel plate having a radially extending planar face, an inner periphery, an outer periphery, and a plurality of radially extending channels formed in said face and disposed equally spaced circumferentially around the wheel plate; wherein each channel has an inner end and an outer end and wherein each channel has a cross sectional shape with a width and height such that the width and height of the channel is less at the outer end of the channel than the width and height at the inner end of the channel and each channel further has an arcuate concave shaped bottom surface and an arcuate concave shaped top surface; a blade releasably disposed in each channel wherein each blade has a connecting member extending radially along one blade edge, said connecting member having a cross sectional shape and taper corresponding to the cross sectional shape and taper of the wheel plate channels; and wherein both the channels in the wheel plate and the connecting members of the blades have an elliptically-shaped cross section extending along the radial length thereof, and both the channels and connecting members are tapered so that their radially inner ends have a greater cross sectional area than their radially outer ends and form a frustum-shaped channel and a frustum-shaped connecting member.