The Australian Oil & Gas Review
Dry ice Blasting
NEW cleaning and restoration technologies are emerging all the time, some more effective than others.
In the past few years, dry ice cleaning/ blasting has become an excellent alternative to sand blasting.
Dry ice cleaning isn’t a new technology. It’s been around a few years but has never lived up to its promise until now.
Steamatic has a dry ice system that delivers a gentle, environmentally friendly cleaning system that eclipses all old dry ice systems, and more aggressive and complex blasting methods.
Why dry ice? It offers clients the most innovative cleaning and remediation service with very little interruption to business.
The key to its many benefits is its blasting medium, dry ice, as unlike older dry ice and hard-medium blasting methods, this system uses finely granulated dry-ice particles.
The particles are accelerated to high speed and ejected through a unique blast nozzle, reaching the surface to be cleaned as small pinhead sized particles.
Dry ice is safe, non-toxic, non-combustible and has almost none of the confined space hazards of traditional blasting mediums.
On impact, solid dry ice particles enter the pores of the surface contaminant and immediately revert to expanded carbon dioxide (CO²) gas.
The expansion of the CO² gas in a confined space blasts the contaminant from the substrate.
Dry ice that impacts the clean surface simply converts to its gaseous state without causing damage or abrasion.
The result is an extremely clean and sanitised surface that shows no signs of abrasion at all, and virtually no clean up.
Dry ice cleaning is an environmentally friendly process that can clean a wide variety of surfaces, machinery and components without chemicals, solvents or mechanical abrasion.
The dry ice simply dissipates into the atmosphere after the cleaning cycle is complete, leaving only the surface contamination to dispose of.
That means no damaging chemicals or toxins are introduced to the work space, no additional residues to be cleaned up, and no additional burden on the environment.
It’s non-conductive so that the impact on surrounding plant and surrounds are kept to a minimum.
Because it’s a harmless medium, it can be used in almost any accessible location and can be used over and over.
The process is used for an increasing number of different applications including production equipment, food processing equipment, machine plant, vehicles and building surfaces.
One of the most immediate benefits when using dry ice cleaning on machinery is that disassembly of individual components is often not required, as the non-abrasive nature of dry ice means it can be used on metals, plastics, rubber, timber and a wide variety of substrates without fear of damage, even on ‘soft’ surfaces.
Dry ice cleaning has a flexibility and ease of use that make it the first choice for most applications.
Setup times for dry ice cleaning are quick, so there’s less time spent in preparation and clean up, which means less down time.
Used in power generation, dry ice cleaning provides a non-conductive, environmentally responsible cleaning process that allows equipment to be cleaned in-place, without powering down or disassembling.
More information on Steamatic’s dry ice blasting method can be found at: www.steamatic.com.au.