Making sense of cleaning processes

Mike Martin looks at some of the drawbacks of conventional cleaning technologies and how these can be overcome using dry ice cleaning equipment.

Elements such as environmental concerns, economic competitiveness and technology have converged, causing industry and government to re-evaluate manufacturing processes.

Many companies have changed from traditional solvent cleaning to alternative methods in a move towards zero discharge.

Companies worldwide are faced with new challenges as more and more emphasis is placed on providing environmentally safer and more cost effective ways of cleaning industrial equipment.

Problems of cleaning in an industrial environment are continual.

The need to reduce downtime, the desire to eliminate mould wear or reduce the use of hazardous solvents are all factors that effect day-to-day running.

In addition the potential damage to base surfaces, accumulations of grease and dirt, layers of old paints, and general grime all can have an effect on the operation of equipment and add to business costs.

Solvents, sand blasting and manual sweeping or bushing have normally been used in industrial cleaning.

Each has specific applications and constraints, and all result in additional environmental and disposal concerns.

The most common industrial cleaning method today is the use of solvents to remove oils, grease, dirt and even paint from machinery and equipment.

There are a variety of solvents available that are effective and easy to use, making this method of cleaning an important tool in plant maintenance.

However, there are considerable risks and costs involved with solvent use: Workers must be protected from carcinogens, the cost of disposing of hazardous waste is now rocketing and solvents release severe greenhouse gases and deplete the ozone layer.

In many cases solvent cleaning creates more waste that the original dirt or grease, and the resultant waste is considered hazardous Sand blasting is another common method of removing layers of paint or dirt from exposed areas.

It is useful only where there is sufficient space to mitigate the resultant dust cloud and where the projected sand can reach large open areas of the equipment.

It has many significant disadvantages, including the generation of more solid waste than was originally present on the equipment, breathing hazards for workers and nearby personnel, and potential damage to the underlying surface being cleaned by the abrasive sand particles.

The age-old method of manually scraping, brushing and sweeping dirt and grime from surfaces is the simplest but least-efficient method of industrial cleaning.

The soaring cost of labour, the unpopularity of performing such tasks, which often leads to a high turnover of personnel are all problems, associated with manual cleaning.

In addition, the complexity of some equipment and the consequent downtime makes this an unpopular choice.

Whether it is because companies have had problems with one or all these traditional cleaning methods, dry ice blast cleaning has gained widespread acceptance in a variety of industries as the preferred method of cleaning.

Industries that now use dry ice blasting include food industries, rubber producers, plastic and aluminium manufacturers, the automotive industry, glass bottle production, paper and packaging, shipping, robotics, dryers and engine maintenance are just a few of the industries and applications benefiting from this cleaning method.

This novel technology involves the use of solid carbon dioxide, commonly known as dry ice, which is propelled at high velocity to impact and clean a surface.

On striking the surface it lifts away the contaminant whether it is rubber or plastic residue, release agents, dirt, paint or other unwanted material.

The dry ice then sublimates and disappears.

The contaminants drop to the floor and are swept away during routine maintenance.

Because dry ice disappears on contact with the surface, no other contaminant is introduced during the cleaning process.

This allows manufacturers to clean in situ without downtime or disassembly.

Jobs that once took hours or even days may now take only minutes.

In addition as dry ice cannot etch or profile most surfaces, it is no longer necessary to replace moulds or equipment damaged by grit blasting.

The dangers of toxic or polluting residues and wastes are eliminated and there is no more collection, treatment or disposal of hazardous waste in the form of used solvents or large amounts of contaminated sand.

The machinery requires no post-treatment cleaning, as is often the case with both sand blasting and solvent cleaning, and only the actual residue remains for disposal.

As a result of the speed in which dry ice blasting removes contaminants, its users save substantial time.

Its application time is either equal to or faster than both solvent washing and sand blasting, without the extensive post-application clean-up time required by both of the other methods.

Cleaning costs are thus directly reduced, as are costs associated with plant machinery Manufacturers not yet familiar with CO2 blast cleaning technology like Cryonomic, will be surprised at the dramatic reductions in downtime made by online cleaning.

For example in the USA the tyre industry has cited a gain of nearly 9000 press hours annually by using this method of cleaning.

Today's environmental issues and resultant legislation is only the beginning with the prospect of further legislation imposing even stricter regulations on general industry.

Dry ice blasting provides industry with a means of meeting current and future legislation whilst at the same time saving themselves costs on solvents, labour, downtime and the early renewal of capital equipment.

chemical, sand and wet-blasting systems.

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