Air blast machines can take the form of a blastroom or a blast cabinet, the blast media is pneumatically accelerated by compressed air and projected by nozzles onto the component. For special applications a media-water mix can be used, this is called wet blasting. In both air operated and wet blasting the blast nozzles can be installed in fixed positions or can be operated manually or by robots.
The blasting task determines the choice of the abrasive media; in most cases any type of dry or free running abrasive media can be used.