Dry Ice Cleaning
Dry ice cleaning is similar to sand, bead, or soda blasting in which a pressurized air stream accelerates material and hits a surface to be cleaned. Using this method, the dry ice particles vaporize upon impact with the surface, eliminating any secondary waste. Particles of solid carbon dioxide (CO2) are propelled at supersonic airstream velocities to achieve the impact energy to strip and clean surfaces in a process. When CO2 pellets impact, they compress and mushroom out into a high-velocity snow and then instantly sublimate back into their natural state as a gas. This creates a compression tension wave. The gas expands to nearly 800 times the volume of the pellet in milliseconds, in what creates a small series of micro-explosions at the impact point. The punctual thermal shock, also known as “fracking,” along with the airstream velocity and the surface’s decreasing temperature serve to break up the coating as it becomes embrittled. As the molecular bond decreases, it simply pops off the contaminant from the inside out.
Benefits
- Decreased downtime
- Faster and more thorough cleaning
- No equipment damage
- Reduction or elimination of solvents
- Reductions in waste disposal
- Increased safety