Dry Ice Blasting - a solution finally ?

[buster73]

Seems dry ice blasting is a great solution to remove road grime, grease and undercoating without damaging other surfaces. See attached pictures with some impressive results from Europe. Any experience here in the US ?

[RickM]

Brilliant idea. I'd be careful around wiring or anything else that may become brittle and break.

Curious to see who knows about this technology.

[MACHINEMON]

THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN INTERESTING RACKED TO GET INTO. HOW WOULD I FIND TECH INFO ON THE PROCESS AND COSTS. THANKS JOEL

[buster73]

Try the following links (english web pages)

www.dryiceinfo.com and
www.rsg-technologies.com

that give technical overview and show applications and even some videos.

[masraum]

Interesting.

[MovOvr1]

That sounds interesting. How expensive would it be?

[RickM]

Thanks for the link Guenter.

Interesting read:

"DENTS & HAIL DAMAGE
Dry Ice will condense metal and thereby shrink small dents on your car. Place the Dry Ice on the inside of the dent if possible. Use heavy gloves and press flat sheet against dent. If it is not possible to get on the inside concave part of the dent, then using heavy gloves hold the Dry Ice so a corner can fit into the bottom lowest part of the cratered dent. Hold the Dry Ice until the metal is frosted at least 2 inches beyond the dent. Let the metal warm up (in the sun is the best) and repeat the procedure. Sometimes the dent will pop out perfectly. More often it will not be possible to get a flat smooth finish, but the dent will be reduced noticeably. Creased metal will still show the crease line but the dent will be far less pronounced. I have not seen any paint damage, but I'm sure if the paint is not strongly adhered, it could peel away."

As for "blasting": http://www.dryiceinfo.com/cleaning.htm

[MovOvr1]

I would rather use a 'pops a dent'

[Vapors]

We use one where I work for cleaning glue off an wood edge gluing machine. It works great on raw steel sprockets chains & machine frames (removes paint fast) but ,it will quickly remove the insulation on wiring instantly. Also it will make all plastic air lines disapear on machinery. I would not use near anything painted, rubber or flexable including fingers and eyeballs.

[304065]

Boeing invented this.

[oneblueyedog]

No good for composite parts.

[TuckerZ]

Dry ice blasting is very powerful and does not hurt surfaces (generally). The pictures are very impressive. Most of the time you see dry ice blasting used in industrial settings. I am pleased to see people using it for more residential uses. One other advantage to dry ice blasting that many people do not discuss is the use around electronics. Dry ice blasting does not bother the electronics like hydro/soda would.

One thing to keep in mind when either dry ice blasting or removing dents with dry ice. Never touch it with your bear hand. It can give you a burn very quickly.


-Tucker
The dry ice resource

[RWebb]

you sure do not want to remove the undercoating from the steel panels

OR the protective waxoyl or Tectyl from any Mg parts

[morrisjm1]

What would Al Gore do?

[Walko]

We use a weekly Dry ice blasting on a weekly basis. There are a lot of positives to its use however you must remember that because it is being blasted you need to source the correct blasting equipment and also someone who can supply the dry ice in 3mm pellets to be effective.
We use dry ice on circuit boards as well as car parts and houses. It can be a slow process as the blast area is approximately 8 to 10 cms.

What it is brilliant for is doing nooks and crannys that you can't get to any other way.

Michael

[Jagshund]

Originally Posted by morrisjm1

What would Al Gore do?

Don't you mean, "Who would Al Gore do?"

What's the cost comparison between dry ice and other media?