Dry-Ice Cleaning Cuts Packing-Machine Maintenance

By utilising cryogenic cleaning technology from Polar ICS on its weighing and packing machines, Turners PPL has reduced the time it takes to clean the machines by 60 per cent. Polar ICS's cleaning technology is based on dry-ice (or cryogenic) blasting, which enables production machines to be cleaned while in situ. Compared to traditional methods, Polar ICS's dry-ice cleaning solution is said to reduce cleaning time by approximately 90 per cent.

The cleaning process itself is also non-toxic, non-conductive and non-abrasive. Dry-ice blasting uses compact pellets that are accelerated in a jet of compressed air. These pellets strike the surface at the speed of sound, whereupon they crack and loosen the coating on the surface that is being treated. The pellets' -79C temperature makes the coating brittle, which cracks and loosens the surface, allowing the dry ice to permeate the coating.

The ice then passes from a solid state to vapour, which leads to a 700-fold increase in volume, an explosive effect that lifts the coating off the surface. Dry ice vapourises immediately on contact with treated surfaces. There is no secondary waste material - the only waste from the process is the coating that has been dislodged by the treatment, which can be swept or vacuumed. This also means that the technology can be used to clean difficult-to-reach surfaces.

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