Frequently asked questions
The advantages of cleaning in place and the evaporation of the blasting media makes dry ice cleaning very effective in following industries/applications:
General Maintenance of Machines & Production Lines
- degreasing chains
- cleaning conveyor systems
- renovating printing presses
- cleaning of glue modules (paper industry)
- paint stripping
- removal of resin
- control panels and fans
- …
Automotive & Aerospace Industry
- removing weld slag from robots
- cleaning tyre moulds
- reconditioning motor blocks
- cleaning engine parts
- …
Plastic and Foundry Industry
- cleaning of injection moulds
- cleaning of extrusion moulds
- cleaning of casting moulds
- foundry core boxes
- …
Food Industry
- cleaning of tanks & silos
- cleaning of industrial ovens
- cleaning of forms (pastry, waffles, …)
- cleaning of production lines (chocolate, …)
- …
Others
- nuclear decontamination
- removing asbestos
- removing graffiti
- removing epoxy paint
- restoration of facades
- removing carbon deposits after fire
- …
Do you want more information about dry ice cleaning? Contact us or go to our dry ice process-page.
The contaminant can be solid, viscous or liquid (paint, carbon deposit, glue, grease, sugar, ink, dirt, …). Solid contaminant will be blown away during dry ice blasting and fall down close by. Viscous or liquid contaminant will loosen and pulled forward by the blasting air force. The operator can direct the contaminant in a certain direction. In specific cases the contaminant is removed in a controlled way with an extraction system.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
The advantages of CRYONOMIC® dry ice blasting as compared to other blasting methods with sand or grid are:
Time saving
- Cleaning in the production environment
- No need to strip down the production machines
- Short or no production stop
- Fast cleaning method
Powerful but less aggressive
- Leaves the base material intact
- Suitable in food industry
- Pellets do not conduct electricity
Environmentally friendly
- Generates no additional waste
- No decontamination nor disposal of blasting media needed
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Dry ice is the solid form of CO2 with a temperature of -79°C. At atmospheric pressure dry ice sublimes directly from a solid back to gas. It is called “dry ice” as it does not contain water.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) doesn’t exist as a liquid at room temperature and at atmospheric pressure. So dry ice doesn’t melt (hence it is “dry”) but sublimates – meaning that the CO2 goes directly from solid to gas as it absorbs heat.
For dry ice cleaning purposes dry ice in the form of granulates of 3 mm diameter, called pellets, is most commonly used.
Do you want more information about dry ice? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Dry ice cleaning is a blasting technique similar to sand blasting. The advantage of using solid CO2 or dry ice pellets as blasting material is twofold.
Firstly the very low temperature of the dry ice pellets causes the contamination to freeze and contract resulting in the easy detachment of the contaminant from the base material.
Secondly the dry ice pellets vaporize to carbon dioxide gas, which means that only the original contaminant is left for disposal. This natural evaporation of dry ice pellets is a major advantage of the dry ice cleaning method.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
There are three categories of applications where dry ice cleaning is not the right technique:
1. The base material is too soft and can be damaged by the high impact of the pellets. Examples are soft wood and some softer plastics.
2. Thick coatings of very hard material that have a strong bond with the underground. Examples are baked-on enamel on cast iron, primers in car parts, …
3. Soft contaminants, like oil, tend to splatter and may require special procedures or collection system.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
These are the required items you need for dry ice blasting:
- A CRYONOMIC® mobile blaster of type COB or COMBI series.
- Adequate compressed air and AC power.
- Pellets in dry ice container.
If desirable, a production site of pellets consists of:
- Optional: pelletiser
- Optional: a storage tank of liquid CO2
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
- Dry ice blasting allows to clean machinery without dismantling or removing the parts from the production area. The reduction of down time of the equipment because of “cleaning in place” creates a significant economical benefit.
- Dry ice cleaning is non abrasive. The lifetime of the machine parts are increased when maintained with dry ice cleaning.
- Dry ice cleaning is for a lot of applications a faster cleaning method than conventional cleaning methods.
- Dry ice cleaning doesn’t require expensive decontamination nor disposal of the blasting or cleaning media.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Dry ice pellets are made from liquid CO2 stored in a pressurised tank. When expanding the liquid CO2 it forms snow. This snow is compressed and extruded through an extruder plate giving the final dimensions of the pellets. The equipment producing the pellets is called a pelletiser.
Do you want more information about dry ice production? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Dry ice pellets are stored and transported in well isolated containers. Good quality containers will limit the evaporation of the pellets to a few percent per day. This means that dry ice can be stored in our well isolated containers up to 1 week (some customers even pick up the dry ice every 2 weeks).
Do you want more information about dry ice containers? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
The CRYONOMIC® dry ice cleaning equipment contains two series: the well known COMBI-series are one- AND two-hose machines, the COB-series are one hose machine.
The comparison of both series with its competitors will be explained separately:
The COMBI series are one- and two-hose systems, powerful equipment, ideal to clean large surfaces without excessive pellet consumption.
1. The COMBI series operate as a one- or two-hose system, which – when compared with a one hose system – offers considerable savings on the use of dry ice pellets. Meanwhile the pellets come only into contact with compressed air and not with ambient (humid) air as with two hose suck systems, resulting in a very reliable system.
2. In our machines air and pellets are pushed through the hoses as opposed to being sucked out of the machine through a venturi which many other machines use. The advantage of our two hose system is that here again, less dry ice pellets are used and we can clean equipment over 100 metres away from the unit with not much loss of effectiveness!
3. With our machine there is continuous pressure regulation between 0.5 bar and 16 bar with the same machine, gun and nozzle, which is without equipment adaptation often not applicable in other machines.
4. CRYONOMIC® introduced two very helpful features on the COMBI machines: the integrated light on the gun illuminates the workspot, resulting in more efficient cleaning; the full remote control allowing adjustment of pellet rate, pressure and speed of pellets on the gun during blasting, is a major advantage for most of the cleaning applications.
5. Our machine is compact and easy to manoeuvre, set up and operate with one person.
6. Pellet consumption rate is indicated digitally and is very accurate.
The COB dry ice blaster is a compact one hose system, ideal for focused cleaning and excellent manoeuvrability.
1. The COB series is a one hose system, but due to its unique design, it is nevertheless economical with respect to dry ice consumption when compared to other one hose systems.
2. This machine is intended for low to medium pressure applications giving high cleaning performance with low air consumption.
3. The small and ergonomic blasting gun, combined with the focused cleaning beam, makes it ideal for applications with poor accessibility. A large range of different nozzles is available on the gun, and these nozzles are easily exchangeable due to its unique fixing concept.
4. The COB allows setting of dry ice consumption and blasting pressure on the control panel.
5. Because the gunlight is such a valuable tool, all the available nozzles can be used in combination with the gunlight!
Contrary to what some engineers or competitors claim, pellets does not need to be crushed to clean aggressively with dry ice. Pellets with a diameter of 3 mm work perfectly.
Convince yourself by requesting a demonstration. We will be happy to organise it for you.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Some local cooling takes place at the surface of the base material. The amount of cooling seldom exceeds -40°C below its initial temperature because a small portion of ice is projected during a short time at the same spot.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Dry ice blasting always cleans faster when the base material is hot (higher thermo shock). Experience in cleaning hot moulds shows that the dry ice blaster goes 2 to 3 times faster and that the cooling does not cause any harm.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Yes, the COB and COMBI series are specially designed for use with shop air, but there are certain conditions that must be met:
- Typical shop air is delivered at 5 to 7 bar. This pressure is sufficient for many applications.
- Sufficient airflow must be available. At 6 bar, the COB units consumes 1 to 3 m³/min depending of gun type and nozzle. The COMBI with the largest gun consumes up to 10 m³/min but in that case the speed is also increased significantly.
- In case of less available air volume, adapted guns and nozzles should be selected.
- Shop air is dry in most cases. Drying up to a dew point of 0°C is sufficient in most cases. Drying up to -20°C is optimal.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
To take advantage of the full power of CRYONOMIC® dry ice blasting equipment capabilities, we recommend a screw type, oil free compressor that provides 6 to 12 m³ per minute at 6 to 12 bar.
Drying up to a dew point of 0°C is sufficient in most cases. Drying up to -20°C is optimal.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Dry ice blasting at a pressure of 6 bar can create noises up to 115 dB. When the pressure and air volume are increased to improve the cleaning performance, the noise level will always increase. Dry ice blasting with less noise at 6 bar is possible when using noise reducing CRYONOMIC® nozzles, however speed of cleaning will also be lowered.
Ear protection for the operator is needed. Sound cabinets surrounding the cleaning booth in large production area’s are commonly applied.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
- The operator should be wearing ear protection, protective clothing, gloves and safety glasses.
- The operator should be aware of the effects of the CO2 to the human body.
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
Depending on the pellet rate set on the CRYONOMIC® blaster, the cleaning process converts between 20 kg/hr and 105 kg/hr of solid pellets into CO2-gas. This implies that adequate ventilation and proper fresh air supply has to be supplied to the operator and other personnel when cleaning to remain the CO2 level below the MAK value of 0,5 % (5000 ppm or 9,1 g/m³) under all operating conditions.
When working in a sound enclosure it is recommended to use a CO2 detector, which takes action when concentrations exceeding 3000 ppm CO2 are detected (sound alarm, shut off equipment, etc.).
Do you want more information about dry ice blasting? Contact us or go to our page ‘dry ice process’.
The cool way of cleaning
Dry ice blasting is dry, non-abrasive and leaves no secondary waste. Moulds and machines can be cleaned in place, without disassembly and without cooling down the production line first — which cuts downtime dramatically.
Dry ice pellets at −78.5 °C are accelerated onto the surface by compressed air. The thermal shock embrittles the contamination, the pellets sublimate on impact and the dirt simply lifts off. No water, no chemicals, no grit.
See a CRYONOMIC® blaster strip carbon, paint and glue residue in real time.
CRYONOMIC® equipment is sold and serviced through a distributor network spanning more than 60 countries. Interested in becoming a distributor? Get in touch.
The dry ice blaster test
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