So, what do they mean by cleaning with dry ice? Well, they don't mean you can clean your lounge with it. No, seriously, they don't mean that. What they mean is, serious, industrial grade cleaning of adhesives, paints, cleaning off old tiles to install new ones, asphalt, the works. This is a new technology and not everyone is used to it. So, today we decided to introduce this wonder cleaner to you.
Procedure
So first things first, we do clean with below freezing dry ice. It is done in different ways. One way is that it is crushed into hard pallets, the size of grains of rice and then sprayed out on the location that needs to be cleaned with compressed air. It does not roughen the surface because it is much softer than sand of glass beads. When the material that needs to be cleaned comes in contact with an exploding mass of subliming frozen material of below or around -100C it shrinks and losses its adhesion, making the cleaning process much easier. Much of the dry ice sublimes after penetrating the outer covering. When carbon dioxide turns back to gas, it increases in volume by 800% and speeds up the removal of deeply penetrated materials as well.
Materials that are removed with this commercial cleaning method include industrial grade dirt, ink, jet exhaust tars, adhesives, asphalt, grease, oil, paint, decals, and soot among many other.
In another system, solid block of dry ice is shaved off on the material that needs to be cleaned and then sprayed in a wider pattern, it is actually one of the best industrial grade cleaning methods ever devised, not to mention the latest.
Uses
Ice blasting is frequently used to clean the old corroded coatings on equipment before re-coating, as it cleans deeply and well, leaving only clean smooth surface without any debris. The impressive part is that there is no drying off or solvent cleaning needed, the moment cleaning is done, and material is ready for re-coating or re-painting.
It is also used for restoration of fire damaged buildings, rooms; as it successfully cleans up wood and other material, gently taking away char and smoke damage.
In-house Industrial Uses: Dry ice cleaning can be useful in equipment cleaning and maintenance, giving out reduced down time and increasing annual production value.
These equipments are expensive with costing $25,000- $50,000 per cleaning equipment. Renting them may be a more economical bet, considering they can only be handled by professionally trained anyways.
