| The dry-ice blasting process has revolutionised industrial cleaning. Mobile blasting units provide an effective way of removing contaminant deposits (such as dirt, oil, wax, grease, rubber, plastics and paint) that stick to walls, equipment or other surfaces during production.
Advantages of dry-ice blasting
No cleaning agent residues, waste water or solvents
• Non-abrasive cleaning agent
• Cleaning possible during production
• Reduced downtime
• Cleaning in undercuts and inside pipes
Process description
Dry-ice blasting resembles sand blasting. Dry-ice pellets (about the size of grains of rice) are fed from a blasting unit’s storage tank into a stream of compressed air and accelerated through a blasting nozzle to almost sonic speed. Emerging at a temperature of -78°C, the dry ice cools the cleaning surface and renders the deposit brittle. The kinetic energy of pellets striking the surface causes an explosive, residue-free transition of the pellets directly to the gaseous state (sublimation). The bonding of the deposit to the substrate is loosened by thermal stresses and can be gently removed without the use of cleaning agents.
A solid gas
Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Similar in appearance to regular ice (frozen water), it is about as hard as plaster and, under atmospheric pressure, sublimates at a temperature of –78°C.
Cleaning applications
The numerous advantages of Dry-ice blasting can be applied to a broad variety of cleaning jobs across numerous industrial applications.
Ice Cleaning Environmental Ltd is the leading service company for dry ice blasting in Great Britain.
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