Dry Ice Blasting

[Paul&Ness]

Hi, mentioned this on another thread but probably under the wrong title!

Has anyone got any experience of 'Dry Ice Blasting'? I have watched many videos online and have been very impressed by this process for anti-foul removal and general cleaning. One of the major factor is the relevant cleanliness compared to other blasting methods and its ability to carried out with very little operational downtime. The dry ice when forced against a hard surface, almost instantly, turns from a solid to a gas so no liquid residue to clear up. Electrical equipment can be cleaned without the risk of damage to components of wiring. It's a process that would seem to be in wide use within the food processing industry, print industry etc. for cleaning equipment. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that had experience of using this system within the boats world

 

[syc1]

Not on a boat, and not personal experience, but I've got an oak frame building specialist working on the house at the minute, he raves about Dry Ice blasting. Apparently very effective at getting old coverings off, gets wood back to raw state, including 'silvered' oak back to its original golden colour. Best bit is the minimal mess, all your left with is what came away from the surface being blasted rather than piles of blasting medium.

 

[Paul&Ness]

I've seen those videos... very effective on wood thats for sure. I'm kind of interested in the potential within the leisure marine world. I have only ever heard of one other boat owner who has mentioned 'Dry Ice Blasting' so it's use can't be that widespread. Occasionally I hear of slurry blasting and bead blasting being used but the mess they create is a problem in as much as it all needs cleaning up... I also like the fact that it can be used on just about everything including fabrics, electrical equipment, wood, plastic, metal and it can be used of cleaning, removing rust and paint, oil etc. I would invest in a small system if I thought it would be a viable propoosition.

 

[Machaseo]

I have used dry ice blasting several times both in industrial applications and on my hull.
I wouldnt advise using it to blast the ingines in situ, it makes an ungodly mess in confined areas. The expansion seen when going from solid to vapour phase of the frozen CO2 blows minute particles everywhere. You would need to mask / seal up everything inside the boat, any where the gas and microscopic dust can go, it will.
There is the obvious HSE issues associated with CO2 in confined areas but easily mitigated with the correct PPE and ventilation.
You can also guarantee you wont get to all the bits on an engine in a confined space and at some point in the future your lovely new paint job will be covered in rusty streaks from those areas you couldnt quite get to.
Ice blasted my hull and was still cleaning blue dust from every orifice a year later.

 

[Paul&Ness]

Thanks Machaseo. All valid points. It would also look to me that the gun & nozzles for Dry Ice Blasting are quite cumbersome and their size may make in-situ engine cleaning a little more than problematic. In respect to the quality of the blasting on your boat hull how would you describe/rate Dry Ice Blasting as a method of cleaning the hull?

 

[Machaseo]

Hi, The finish after ice blasting was good, too good actually, I had to DA the whole hull to provide a key for the antifoul primer.
Slurry blasting would be my choice for the hull the next time round, you'll get a finish ready to paint / epoxy on and the only mess is a big pile under the boat, but no dust to permeate every orifice / pore and scratch on the boat. Mine looked like a 40ft Smurf. This could have been mitigated by sheeting up prior to blasting but the blaster assured me it would be fine.
Ice blasting has its place in certain applications but in my opinion inside or outside the boat arent them.
Blasting the engines out the boat would be worth while with ice as the blasting media evaporates so no sand / grit to get into seals etc, only the paint flakes.
I looked at buyimg my own kit but decided against it at the time.

 

[reon333]

Yes, I own a company of Dry ice. Nowadays dry ice is the best cleaning solution in many industries. Actually, what is dry ice?, It is a Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in its solid form. It is been referred to as Dry Ice as it doesn’t melt as a normal ice do rather it gets converted into the carbon dioxide gas. Its temperature goes up to -109°F/-78.5°C. It is generally used for shipping the medical products and frozen foods because of its completely dry and non-toxic nature. Dry ice blasting offers many ways and is very handy, which makes them ideal to be used in Oil & Gas industries. They are widely used in countries where oil extraction happened like Iran, Iraq, and Abu Dhabi etc. As per dry ice blasting specialists in UAE the equipment which is used to extract the oils are inevitable or bound to get dirty and smudged, which makes it very difficult to clean them

 

[Elessar]

Hi, mentioned this on another thread but probably under the wrong title!

Has anyone got any experience of 'Dry Ice Blasting'? I have watched many videos online and have been very impressed by this process for anti-foul removal and general cleaning. One of the major factor is the relevant cleanliness compared to other blasting methods and its ability to carried out with very little operational downtime. The dry ice when forced against a hard surface, almost instantly, turns from a solid to a gas so no liquid residue to clear up. Electrical equipment can be cleaned without the risk of damage to components of wiring. It's a process that would seem to be in wide use within the food processing industry, print industry etc. for cleaning equipment. I'd be interested in hearing from anyone that had experience of using this system within the boats world

I looked into it when I had my antifoul business.

Commercially its very difficult. If you buy a kg of dry ice today, you've got about 700g by the time it's delivered tomorrow. And if tomorrow is windy and you can't blast? Also how much do you need? Don't know, there is no way of knowing until you've started. Order too much or not enough? You can't keep it in stock.
And like soda blasting, the medium travels far and desolves, leaving a blue film on everything for blocks around.
And it's still an abrasive. Don't think it can't damage your hull - that's all down to operator skill.


Slurry remains the best solution for boat hulls IMHO. Dry ice is bound to cost more for the reasons stated for no gain.

 

[ProClean]

Dry ice blasting would not be ideal for anti-fouling paint.
I currently own a company that performs dry ice blasting services, mostly in the fields of mold remediation and smoke damage. As a youngster, I also worked at a marina on the Mississippi River in Missouri, sanding down plenty of anti-fouling paint.
Dry ice requires quite a bit of compressor CFM and PSI to "cut" through thick paint coatings. If you rent a compressor(for $1,200 a day) large enough to easily cut through those coatings, you run the risk of blasting into your gel coat or wood. You also need a dry ice blasting machine that can handle 200psi+. The few of those machines made are extremely costly. The smaller dry ice blasting machines that handle 100-200 psi can cost $35,000+.
Dry ice blasting should be considered more for light material moving. In the watercraft industry, dry ice blasting would be better suited for scum buildup on bottom paint, than to remove actual coatings. It is not as aggressive, generally, as say sandblasting. It has its advantages of sublimation upon impact, being able to feather down pressure, and not damaging surfaces/materials that can't handle H20, but it's definitely not a champ at difficult to remove coatings on wood, metal, or fiberglass.

 

[Bandit]

Paul and Ness

We blast quite a few boats for antifoul removal with slurry of ground glass, this is like fine sand if you pick it up, you can take off layers with a bit of care either back to a good coating or back to the gelcoat.

The gelcoat is left with very fine dimples effectively a matt finish like emulsion paint. Then pressure wash the hull and wash the boat down, then five coats of Gelshield and anti-fouling of your choice or Coppercoat.

We did by boat that had 18 years of anti-fouling and we took it back to the original gelshield equivalent coating and built up with five of Gelshield and hard racing AF it came up really well.

PM me with your tel no if you want to talk it through.