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Before you ask, yes, dry ice blasting machines can cost a pretty penny. The good news is dry ice blasting machines can be rented at many equipment rental facilities.
If there has ever been a product that would make a engine builder want to “go green,” this one is it. Dry ice blasters clean tough-to-remove contaminates, paint, grease and baked on grime without leaving a residue on the parts or a hazardous waste stream left behind.
In a nutshell, dry-ice blasting is similar to abrasive blasting except frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) is substituted as the blasting medium. The dry ice is accelerated in a pressurized air stream at the surface to be cleaned. Unlike other medium that uses force as the sole means of cleaning crude off of the surface, dry ice blasters use the kinetic energy along with thermal shock to remove contamination.
As shown in the video animation above, once the dry ice hits the target surface, the rapid change in state from solid to gas also causes microscopic shock waves, which also assists in removing the contaminant.
The machines come in two types of delivery systems, single-hose or two-hose dry ice blasting. Most industries that have tried the dry ice blasting have identified the single-hose type as having a greater delivery rate of the dry ice pellets. Developed by Cold Jet, LLC in 1986, the single-hose dry ice blasters are generally used when the surface to be cleaned has a heavier build-up of contaminates.
Benefits of Cold Jet dry ice blasting:
- Is a non-abrasive, nonflammable and nonconductive cleaning method
- Is environmentally-friendly and contains no secondary contaminants such as solvents or grit media
- Allows most items to be cleaned in place without time-consuming disassembly
- Can be used without damaging active electrical or mechanical parts or creating fire hazards
- Can be used to remove production residues, release agents, contaminants, paints, oils and biofilms
- Carbon dioxide is a non-poisonous, liquefied gas, which is both inexpensive and easily stored at work sites.
Reduced cleaning time, without abrasives or leaving behind a hazardous waste stream, and no chemical residue left on the components sounds almost too good to be true. In fact, it sounds perfect for cleaning engines!
