What Is Dry Ice Blasting
Dry ice blasting is an eco-friendly, EPA, FDA and USDA method of blast cleaning that involves shooting dry ice pellets at high speeds on to a surface. The dry ice is shot out of hoses with special nozzles. These hoses attach to a machine that is loaded with dry ice. As this machine runs, it shoots dry ice down the hose using compressed air. As the dry ice hits the surface, it immediately sublimates, removing the debris/contaminants.
Dry ice blasting has major advantages over traditional blasting products (sand, hydro, chemical, steam, etc). Here are a few of my favorite advantages:
- Dry ice blasting is eco-friendly. No more having to deal with cleanup of harsh chemicals or contaminated water. Anything we can do to help the earth is a plus in my book.
- No dry ice cleanup. Dry ice is unique in the fact that after the dry ice hits the surface it turns directly in to CO2 gas. This means that the only cleanup is the debris that came from the surface being cleaned. Traditional methods would require more cleanup to get rid of chemicals, sand, or water that is left behind from the cleaning.
- Dry ice does not damage surfaces. Dry ice is strong enough to blast way the bad stuff, but gentle enough to not damage most surfaces it hits. Other types of blasting, like sand, will chip away at the equipment as it is being blasted.
Dry ice blasting can be used to clean a number of things. We will put up a more complete article shortly, but in the meantime, here is a short list of things that dry ice blasting can clean:
- Mold
- Glue
- Fire damage (including soot and smoke)
- Paint
Common Misconceptions
- Just leaving dry ice on a surface and allowing it to sublimate will not clean a surface. Dry ice blasting requires shooting the dry ice pellets at high speeds to be effective.
- Dry ice blasting cannot clean all surfaces. Some surfaces like burnt metal cannot be made to look new again.