A New England company that specializes in residential and commercial HVAC systems needed a facilities cleaning service to remove paint overspray from an overhead conveyor line. During a July 4th shutdown, a Nitrofreeze® crew used dry ice blasting to remove this unwanted material from the conveyor system’s chains, carriers, and other metal components. The before and after pictures that accompany this blog speak for themselves, but there’s also a YouTube video that shows this project in action.
How Does Dry Ice Blasting Work?
Dry ice blasting for paint removal uses compressed air to propel a stream of dry ice particles at surfaces like the ones on our customer’s overhead conveyor system. It’s effectively media-less because when dry ice pellets hit a surface, the media turns to a gas and evaporates in a process known as sublimation. Dry ice won’t damage surface finish, but it will remove contaminants such as paint overspray. In addition to large areas, dry ice cleaning can remove unwanted material from around fasteners and crevices.
Why Is Dry Ice Blasting Better?
Facilities managers can choose dry ice blasting, sand blasting, or pressure washing. With dry ice blasting for paint removal, the only thing that’s left behind is the unwanted material from the surface that was cleaned. There are no time-consuming cleanups and the process is environmentally safe. Sand blasting leaves behind sand and grit, including particles in crevices. Pressure washing creates a wet mess that can pose a slip-and-fall hazard. Of these three processes, only dry ice blasting is approved for use by the EPA, FDA, and USDA.
What Are Some Other Applications?
Across the Northeast, facilities managers are using dry ice blasting for paint overspray removal and many other industrial applications. Examples include the cleaning of food processing conveyor lines, heat treatment furnaces, printing presses, paper mill equipment, gas turbines, and power generators. Dry ice blasters are also used with mold cleaning and parts deflashing, and for building remediation with historic structures. For dry ice blasting that requires added aggression, Nitrofreeze® offers abrasive ice blasting.
Who Provides Contract Dry Ice Blasting in New England?
Nitrofreeze® provides contract dry ice blasting services and sells, rents, and services dry ice blasters made by ColdJet®. There are two platforms. The i3 Microclean was designed for plastics manufacturers who need to deflash parts. It also clean molds and equipment. The Aero2 PCS 60 is more flexible and supports all of the industries and applications that use dry ice blasting. This dry ice blaster provides control over dry-ice particle sizes for customizable cleaning and has a wheeled design for greater mobility.
What is Abrasive Ice Blasting?
Abrasive ice blasting can be used in facilities management applications where minimal amounts of abrasive dust are acceptable. Nitrofreeze® uses an E-CO2™ 150 abrasive ice blasting system that combines an Aero PLT 60 dry ice blaster with a custom 1.5 cubic feet pressurize pot. The Aero PLT 60 cuts precise, diamond-shaped particles in sizes ranging from 0.3 mm to 3 mm. The custom blast pot provides accurate abrasive dosing and, when a user pulls the trigger, mixes the abrasive and dry ice together simultaneously.
Ask Nitrofreeze® for Contract Dry Ice Blasting
Dry ice blasting and abrasive ice blasting provide cost-saving advantages over sand blasting and power washing. Both dry ice blasting and abrasive ice blasting use dry ice particles, but there are important differences between the two. For help determining which method is right for your next facilities cleaning project, contact Nitrofreeze® at the phone number and email listed below.
(508) 459-7447 x109 | info@nitrofreeze.com