Posted by Franz [24.149.37.138] on Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 20:13:36 :
In Reply to: Re: Sand, soda, dry ice, plastic beads, pecan shells posted by Ray in TX [70.196.71.75] on Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 10:28:23 :
Polar Blast sounds like another painting contractor stuck with payments on an ice blaster.
Water blasting would probably do a superior job on a heat exchanger at lower cost unless it was a thin shell exchanger.
In media blasting, "leave marks on" is not a known term, are you perhaps trying to say etching?
The temperature of the "ice" impinging onto the surface has no effect whatsoever on cleaning, because the time of contact with the surface isn't sufficient to change temperature.
Dry ice is a useful media in situations such as cleaning electrical windings and slip rings of powerhouse generators, because the media is highly controllable. It is preferred in those situations to soda primarily because no media is left behind with the crap removed. Soda and or wheat hull offers superior crud removal but both leave residue.
Impact of Co2 is similar to impact of soda, but perhaps a bit more toward microsponges than soda.
Even if the machinery required for Co2 was 10% of current cost, ice is still a poor cleaning method. Cost of material is insane, and suppliers are completely knowledge free and incapable of understand what was ordered. Shelf life of ice sucks and it is dangerous to handle.
That said, if you have $60,000 you want to invest in a machine that will sit accumulating dust in your shop 364 days a year I think I know a banker who would love to sell you one.
There are only about 100 possible choices in blast media today, and at least 50 are small niche use medias.
BTW, soda sucks too, and it does NOT kill or eliminate mold, although it will kill plants and vegitation in runoff areas.
Educated decisions are made by people who learn, not people who think they read what some guy posted on a hotrod site. Go forth and learn. Google is your friend.
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