If you are looking for ways to reduce the amount of material you have to clean up after using an abrasive blasting medium -- and you want to reduce the chances of your workers inhaling fine particles -- dry ice may be your best bet. The chunks of ice better known for giving off tendrils of fake fog are not new to the world of abrasive blasting, but they are gaining in popularity as more companies try to make their jobs more environmentally friendly.

No Added Materials

Because dry ice goes from solid to gaseous form, with no liquid left over, any dry ice used as an abrasive blasting medium disappears. While you'd still have to clean up debris from the blasting -- old paint, concrete, or whatever you were blasting off of a surface -- you won't have the added mess of cleaning up sand or other particles used in the blasting.

This reduces the loads of debris that you have to carry away and reduces the amount of material heading to the local landfill. There is less debris in general that can scatter and create a mess that's difficult to clean up. This is especially crucial if the blasting is being done on something that is underwater -- instead of adding the blasting medium to the water, the dry ice will still dissolve into gas.

Less to Breathe In

Another advantage to using dry ice has to do with what the worker handling the blasting equipment has to go through. A risk of using abrasive blasting mediums is that the worker will inhale the fine particles of blasting medium. While the worker can (and usually has to) wear a respirator, there is always the fear that some of the blasting medium will still get through the respirator. Again, with dry ice, the particles evaporate quickly. Workers still need to use respirators to avoid breathing in small particles of the materials that are being blasted away, but with dry ice, there will be fewer particles to worry about to begin with.

If you want to get more information about dry ice pellets for abrasive blasting, talk to supply companies and see what sizes of pellets are offered and if the procedure for using them -- dry ice blasting sometimes requires several passes over the surface, so blasting can take longer -- is suitable for use by your workers and your company. However, if you're looking to hire someone for abrasive blasting services, contact a specialist, such as Steel Coatings Inc., to discuss whether or not dry ice blasting is best for you and your needs.