Dry Ice Blasting...

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john111

Plastic

Joined

Dec 28, 2007

Location

United States

• Dec 29, 2007

• #1

Hi everyone. I am an engineering student. I read something called dry ice blasting while browsing net. Well I don’t know why, but I am curious to know about it. I know about traditional labor intensive methods like scrapers, wire brushes, sand blasting and pressure washing. I know dry ice is basically solid form of CO2, but I have no clue about this dry ice blasting.
Can somebody throw some light on this or at least suggest some site where I can find some info on this.

Sam.

 

7

79Jimmy

Plastic

Joined

Oct 17, 2007

Location

Richmond, BC

• Dec 29, 2007

• #2

Well its basically a from of media blasting which uses dry ice as the abrasive. Very useful in an enclosed environment where removal of the residual media would be difficult. The dry ice sublimates almost instantly so it is very clean. Think of an attic in a house that has had a mold problem, blast the rafters with dry ice to remove the mold, very little to clean up. It is a fairly light abrasive and also very useful if you want to avoid heat build up in the part being blasted like very thin sheet metal.

J

 

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gradstdnt_99

Hot Rolled

Joined

Aug 17, 2004

Location

USA, Midwest

• Dec 29, 2007

• #3

I work in the auto industry. An application of this process is used to clean up welding fixtures. Supplier MIG welds stampings into components and over time the weld spatter builds up on the fixture causing potential issues with loading parts and operation of clamps. The crushed dry ice is basically blasted onto the weld fixtures to clean up the weld spatter. The beauty is that no further cleanup is required.

 

jim rozen

Diamond

Joined

Feb 26, 2004

Location

peekskill, NY

• Dec 29, 2007

• #4

It's also used extensively in the semiconductor industry - when one has a vacuum
chamber that is coated inside with 'overspray' from PVD processes, sometimes the
stuff is toxic and if the insides are blasted with regular media, the entire resulting
mess has to be disposed of as toxic waste.

With CO2 all that's left is the small batch of debris that used to be on the walls.

Jim

 

ToughTool

Hot Rolled

Joined

Apr 9, 2007

Location

Panama City, Florida 32401

• Dec 29, 2007

• #5

Just curious! Does this add to the so called "carbon footprint", BS?
Joe

 

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MrChurchill109

Hot Rolled

Joined

Jul 14, 2003

Location

Chelmsford, MA USA

• Dec 29, 2007

• #6

ToughTool said:

Just curious! Does this add to the so called "carbon footprint"
Joe

Click to expand...

Can't see how it would, considering you're trapping CO2 by freezing it, then releasing it again...

 

A

acme thread

Stainless

Joined

Feb 1, 2007

Location

aurora ohio

• Jan 4, 2008

• #7

Blasting With Dry Ice

I watched the process one time in the steel mill where I worked.Blasting was done with portable equipement,brought in by contractors. They were removing years of accumulated grease off of mill housings befor a rebuild. the grease was blasted off everthing,down to the paint level and laborers just shoveled the frozen grease pellets away.I'm talking serious grease here ,sometimes a foot thick, There was no problems afterword with abrasives in the hydraulic systems; Their major concern

 

J

jrt

Plastic

Joined

Oct 23, 2006

Location

St. Louis

• Jan 4, 2008

• #8

At high enough pressures CO2 becomes a very good solvent- it's used for some 'green' process dry cleaning and such. I'm not sure if the impact pressure is high enough to contribute to this aspect, but as an engineering student, it would make for a nice thought problem.

 

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superalloy

Cast Iron

Joined

Oct 26, 2006

Location

Portland, OR

• Jan 4, 2008

• #9

I worked at one time for a semiconductor fab tool parts cleaning business. We used one of the units made by Alpheus. Looks like they have been taken over by Cold Jet: http://www.coldjet.com/en/information/what-is-dry-ice-blasting.php

Good for removing photoresist-type residues from delicate substrates like anodized surfaces or plastic components. Also some adhesives removal from ceramics and quartz.

I remember some of the parts would develop a healthy static charge that could sometimes be a problem.

It's not a very aggressive media, at about 90psi as I recall.

Need to have Oxygen sensors nearby and good engineering control of the airflow in the area for operator safety.

 

Ranchero50

Cast Iron

Joined

Jan 2, 2008

Location

Hagerstown MD, USA

• Jan 6, 2008

• #10

It's used in the printing industry regularly for cleaning the ink buildup out of the print units on the presses. Of course you need a healthy compressor feeding a 1.5" line to the machine, welders gloves, earplugs, goggles, face shield, long sleeve tyvek suit, etc. It makes a mess, but the units come out clean. The ink freezes and flakes off really nicely.

Jamie

 

M

Mcandrew1894

Stainless

Joined

Sep 29, 2006

Location

Massachusetts

• Jan 8, 2008

• #11

This is why I love this forum!

Never heard of such a thing, but I can now think of a few applications...