Dry ice blasting or CO2-blasting, is a relatively new cleaning technique which is often used for manual cleaning of surfaces. The principal of this technique to clean due blasting grains which evaporate immediately on the surface. This remains only a layer of dry waste on the surface. This waste is easy to remove with brushes or water. The blasting grains are in fact small carbonic acid ice grains, also called CO2-grains. These CO2-grains have a temperature of 80° below zero. When the CO2-grain hit the surface, the grains are evaporated immediately into a harmless and colorless gas. This results in a volume enlargement of factor 500, where kinetic energy produces a lifting power, which cleans the waste fast and efficiently.

Dry ice blasting is a technique which is usually used to clean metal materials on a periodic base. For paint-stripping or cleaning of thick layers of paint, dry ice blasting isn’t the most efficient technique.

Advantages

Dry ice blasting is a dry cleaning technique which is effective for the cleaning of small and medium-sized metal materials. This technique can be used for the cleaning of fat remains, rust stains, chewing gum remains, etc. It’s an environmentally friendly technique and there is no drainage of toxic waste because of the immediate vaporization of the CO2-grains. The costs/efficiency of this technique is comparable with other cleaning techniques like  thermal cleaning abrasive blasting.

Disadvantages

The big disadvantage of dry ice blasting is the fact it’s a manual technique. It’s not suggested for the constant cleaning of large materials or paint-stripping. Also, the paint-stripping makes a lot of noise and it costs relatively much energy compared to other techniques.