Benefit #4: DRY ICE BLASTING REDUCES PRODUCTION DOWNTIME
Production downtime can result from operator error, poor maintenance, hardware or software failure. This is referred to as unplanned production downtime.
However, production downtime can also be voluntary, particularly in the context of maintenance (equipment or software upgrades) or cleaning of work equipment.
We will focus on this latter aspect and will see in this article, through a concrete and therefore non-theoretical example, how dry ice blasting reduces production downtime (the case examined: unplanned production downtime).
This article comes from the section: benefits of dry ice blasting
Time-consuming cleaning methods
Industrial cleaning techniques such as and allows moss removal from facades or roofs even on natural slate and terracotta tiles. No chemical products, only or manual cleaning with detergents very often require disassembly of the parts to be cleaned and a drying time for the treated elements that varies in length.
It goes without saying that in this case, production downtime depends largely on will deliver results. and the time required to clean the work tool.
Obviously, we assume that the methods and detergents used are the correct ones. Cleaning with the wrong detergent is a guarantee that your cleaning will never achieve a degree of cleanliness optimal.
In fact, choosing an unsuitable detergent or a surface cleaning technique not suited to the task at hand can at best produce a poor result, at worst increase the duration of the operation and thus increase production downtime and obviously its cost, which can then amount to thousands of euros per hour or per day.
The industrial cleaning technique using high-pressure washers involves drying time and corrosion on metal surfaces...
Therefore, you must absolutely avoid cleaning methods that are time-consuming. The ideal would therefore be a method that eliminates eliminates the problems of disassembly dry ice. It addresses environments where cleaning control takes priority over raw power, particularly when the goal is to preserve surface integrity while ensuring effective and reproducible cleaning. drying, by reducing or eliminating le disassembly and by abolishing le drying and the use of detergents.
This method is cryogenic cleaning.
How dry ice blasting reduces production downtime
First of all, let us recall that the dry ice blasting process uses dry ice as the cleaning agent or medium.
This technique is comparable to sandblasting: the medium placed inside the tank (hopper) of a typical blaster ATX25-E, 30 ou 80, is mixed with compressed air and then sprayed through a delivery line, a gun and a nozzle.
On impact, dry ice causes 3 nearly simultaneous phenomena:
- Mechanical shock: dry ice in the form of 3 mm pellets cracks the contaminant
- Shock coefficient : the very low temperature of dry ice at -80°C generates shrinkage of the contaminant. This causes it to detach from the surface or treated substrate.
- Sublimation : dry ice transitions from solid to gaseous state in a ratio of 1 to 700, literally blowing the dirt away.
Example of dry ice blasting service on agrifood equipment
These result in phenomena several advantages which allow you through dry ice blasting to reduce your downtime de production due to cleaning.
Here are some benefits...
No drying needed
As mentioned above, the medium used is dry ice, meaning it does not pass through a liquid phase before returning to the atmosphere: the process is therefore 100% dry (provided your compressed air is dry).
Pre-treatment cooling of surfaces is not essential before dry ice blasting
Why do we say this? Well, simply because of the thermal shock on the contaminant: the hotter the surface and the faster the dry ice blasting process, particularly on surfaces such as steel (foundry molds, plastics manufacturing, ovens...): the contaminant loses its cohesion on the surface more quickly.
Little or no disassembly required
Since the cleaning process is dry, there is no risk of causing short circuits, rust on processes, or bacterial development.
Result: enormous time savings on disassembly and sealing that become at best unnecessary, at worst minimal.
No secondary waste reprocessing
In the case of using high-pressure cleaning, this requires wastewater reprocessing and therefore secondary waste reprocessing. Again, dry ice blasting is dry. Only dirt that falls to the ground by gravity needs to be vacuumed.
Case study: dry ice blasting on conveyor chains
Following a request for dry ice blasting service on 2 conveyor chains of 750 linear meters each, and as part of unplanned production downtime (equipment problem), company "B", a dry ice blasting service provider, submitted a quote.
Good to know: the conveyor chains in question are located in an agrifood company: the process involved runs 24/7. Bottom line: since the production downtime was not planned, the longer it lasts, the higher the downtime cost will be and will be added to the cleaning operation cost.
Quote from competitor "A" (industrial maintenance specialist)
7 days of downtime, broken down as follows (4 people)
2 days to disassemble the chains of 750 meters
3 days of cleaning and greasing: high-pressure cleaning with detergent, drying the chains before greasing
2 days of reassembly
Cost A: xx,xxx €HT
Remember, the company owning the chains produces 24/7
Therefore, you must add to the cost of the service, which amounts to several thousand euros:
24 hours X 7 days X x,xxx € (hourly cost of production downtime).
If we assume that the hourly cost of production downtime is 5.000 €HT, then for production downtime alone, the bill comes to: 24 H X 7 d X 5.000 € = 840.000 €, an amount to which you must add the service cost of competitor A
Traditional cleaning of conveyor chains using a high-pressure washer requires disassembly, drying, greasing, reassembly...
Quote from company "B" (dry ice blasting service provider)
2 days 1/2 of downtime, broken down as follows (3 people)
2 days 1/2 of dry ice blasting of the chains, in-situ, using a dedicated enclosure
2 blasters: Cryoblaster ATX80 and MACH3 (ATX25)
1 job-site compressor + dry ice
Cost B: xx,xxx €HT
Assuming the production downtime cost is 5.000 €HT, production downtime represents: 24 H X 2 D 1/2 (or 60 hours) X 5.000 € = 300.000 €, an amount to which we add the service cost of company Delta Diffusion and which represents half the cost of competitor A.
Result: dry ice blasting in this application proved to be 3,2 times faster than the traditional method and 2,7 times cheaper when adding production downtime and its cost plus service pricing.
Own a Cryoblaster (since 2019)? To learn more about this case study, costs, quantity of dry ice, service margin, log into your customer account.
Dry ice blasting with ATX80, Mach3 (ATX25) and dedicated enclosure... No disassembly. Dry operation performedin-situ.
