Abrasive Blasting, Shot Peening & Surface Prep worked example

Surface Contamination Risk Score with contamination severity of 4.5 score: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop contamination severity to 4.5 score, then walk the calculation through step by step. Score the risk of coating or peening contamination using severity, likelihood, and detection difficulty.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Contamination severity: 4.5 score (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 9)
  • Contamination likelihood: 4 score (held at the documented default)
  • Detection difficulty: 5 score (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Contamination risk score = severity × 0.40 + likelihood × 0.35 + detection difficulty × 0.25.
  • Contamination risk score works out to 4.45 contamination risk score at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Contamination severity works out to 4.5 score at these inputs.
  • Contamination likelihood works out to 4 score at these inputs.
  • Detection difficulty works out to 5 score at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where contamination severity sits at 9 score and the headline result is 6.25 contamination risk score, this scenario comes in 28.8% below the baseline at 4.45 contamination risk score.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to contamination severity, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. Scores are relative judgments, not measured contamination levels; calibrate the 1-10 inputs against a shared rubric or different estimators will produce inconsistent results.

Results at a glance

  • Contamination risk score: 4.45 contamination risk score (headline result)
  • Contamination severity: 4.5 score
  • Contamination likelihood: 4 score
  • Detection difficulty: 5 score

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Surface Contamination Risk Score calculator, set contamination severity to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.