ICE BLASTING

ABSTRACT

Ice blasting is an innovative invention, which has revolutionized the trends in de-
burring processes. The gist of ice blasting is impact cleaning in confined spaces. The
prospect of a dustless abrasive blasting process is very appealing on environmental and
worker safety compliance grounds. This method, for cleaning a surface uses ice
particles as the cleaning agent, which employs an icemaker that creates ice particles, at
least one separator that separates snow from the ice particles and a blasting gun that
receives the ice particles and propels them toward the surface to be cleaned.
Advantageously, the apparatus is able to function for extended periods of time
without ice blockages occurring. Ice particles can be produced continuously at a rate of
200 pounds per hour with a pressure of 200psi consuming 20gallons of water per hour.
At the heart of the ice blast technology is the scrub and flush cleaning that takes place
when the ice crystals impact onto a substrate.
Further, upon impact, the ice particles explode, turning approximately half of its
solid mass into vapour and other half into liquid, thus resulting in even less wastewater
to contain.

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INTRODUCTION

21 st century with it has brought a lot of challenges in all the fields of

engineering which has led to drastic technological improvement.

Ice blast is a cleaning technology, which is essentially a hybrid between

abrasive (i.e. sand) and non-abrasive (i.e. water) types. Because ice is a phase change
material, it cleans as a solid, then deforms on impact and performs a scrubbing and
rinsing action. No other blast cleaning material can work in this fashion.

Ice blasting is a simple process that uses compressed air and ice crystals,
shot through a hose and directed with a nozzle, a fine powerful mist is blasted onto a
surface, acting like a chisel to remove debris. Ice blasting is a non-abrasive, cleaning
process that uses ordinary tap water, compressed air and electricity to create an
environmentally friendly, cost effective method to address a variety of cleaning needs. It
is the smart solution for companies concerned with minimizing waste produced during
industrial cleaning applications. Compared to other blast cleaning processes, ice blast
reduces secondary waste by up to 95%.

The process is known to save time and cleans as thoroughly and neatly or more
so in a comparatively less time.

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HISTORY

The Department of National Defence in Canada contracted Dr. Sam Visaisouk to

determine the feasibility of ice blasting for cleaning in confined spaces such as inside
ships. The prospect of a dustless abrasive blasting process was very appealing on
environmental and worker safety compliance grounds. This effort led to the first
operating commercial ice blast machine in 1992. These ice blast machines had complex
operating system controls and required frequent defrosting as very cold air was used for
fluidizing and transporting ice particles from source to nozzle.

During this period, other methods of ice blast were introduced elsewhere. Gary
Settles of Penn State University patented a process in which a cryogenic fluid froze
atomized water in a nozzle for blasting.

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BLASTING IN GENERAL
Blasting refers to a high-speed impact of a projectile on a target. The projectile can
be either discrete, as in solid media blasting, or continuous, as in water blasting. A
simple impact phenomenon involves 2 bodies. The projectile normally called the
blast media projected at a variety of speed and angle towards the target.

a) Abrasive Blasting

In applications where erosion is to be controlled, solid media of low abrasivity such

as plastic media, starch media, etc. are used. For solid media of low abrasivity, the
impact action is mainly displacement. One aspect of solid media blasting is the
generation of dust. Therefore, abrasive blasting is not a cleaning process.

b) Water blasting

Water Blasting is non-abrasive therefore its applications relate mainly to cleaning.

For effective cleaning, normally detergents or other cleaning chemicals are added to
the water. The impact action is primarily rinsing. In many applications the water is
recycled, thereby requiring water treatment as additional process and cost

c) Ice Blasting

Ice blast is a cleaning technology, which is essentially a hybrid between

abrasive (i.e. sand) and non-abrasive (i.e. water) types. Because ice is a phase change
material, it cleans as a solid, then deforms on impact and performs a scrubbing and
rinsing action. No other blast cleaning material can work in this fashion.

Ideal Blast

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ABOUT ICE BLASTING

Ice is a phase change media. Ice starts as a solid and changes into a liquid.
Therefore it possesses the combined characteristics of both solid and liquid blasts. Ice
is not abrasive, therefore is only marginal in erosion applications. Being a phase change
material, ice does not generate dust on impact.

Ice particles will change phase at normal working temperatures, therefore are
ideally suited as a blast-cleaning agent

De-burring Mechanism in Ice Blasting

1. Before Phase Change - Displace

Ice particles are solids possessing momentum to displace contamination on a target.

Displacement results when ice particle momentum exceeds the inertia of the
contamination.

2. During Phase Change - Scrub

Ice particles exert a pressure against the surface as it deforms, providing a strong ice-
surface interaction whereby minute amounts of contaminations can be scrubbed away.
At a blast pressure of about 7 bar, this scrubbing pressure has been estimated to be
approximately 300 bar.

3. After phase change – Flush

Ice particles melt into water to rinse away removed contamination. The conversion of
kinetic energy to pressure energy enables to flush away the scrubbed debris. This
conversion adds the features of water de-burring to the process. Thus having a two in
one effect at the same cost.
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WORKING

In ice blasting, ice particles are accelerated by a stream of high velocity of air to
do impact cleaning work. Ice particles are not free flowing and will pack and
agglomerate when stationary. For ice blast to work readily, ice particles must be created
and consumed continuously in a dynamic state.

An ice blast machine is ready for work within seconds of pushing the start button.
Ice particles are produced continuously at a rate of 200 pounds per hour. Using a two
hose system, ice particles are transported through a low pressure hose to the blasting
nozzle where a second higher pressure hose delivers up to 200 psi (“pounds per square
inch”) pressure to accelerate the ice particles towards the target surface. The solid ice
particles displace surface contaminants through the energy from the impact and through
the lateral deformation of the ice particles. At the heart of the ice blast technology is the
scrub and flush cleaning that takes place when the ice crystals impact onto a substrate.
Ice crystals deform to scrub on impact, and after impact melt into water to flush away
debris. Ice blasting uses up to 20 gallons per hour. Further, upon impact, the ice
particles explode, turning approximately half of its solid mass into vapour and the other
half into liquid, thus resulting in even less wastewater to contain.

Fig: A typical ice blasting instrument

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Refrigeration and Ice making

Ice blast requires ice particles and compressed air to provide high velocity for
impact work. Equipment-wise, it requires refrigeration and ice making. These are the
two most reliable industrial components today as our entire food supply infrastructure
depends on them. They can operate reliably under harsh climatic and environmental
conditions. In combination, they have the attributes of a robust industrial process that is
reliable and cost-effective. This is the reason why production of ice crystals by
cryogenic fluids is neither cost effective nor reliable in comparison.

1) Refrigeration and Ice making Process:

The most reliable ice making process is known as “immersed cold drum" .As
refrigerant cools a rotating drum surface, a thin sheet of ice is immediately formed.
Under appropriate conditions of drum diameter, temperature and rotational speed, the
ice sheet can be formed with sufficient internal stress that when its frontal edge
impacts a doctor blade, the sheet fractures into small ice fragments similar to the
shattering effect of a broken stressed (safety or Pyrex) glass.

2) Moving the Ice particles:

. Above the doctor blade is mounted a tube with a longitudinal slot over the entire
length of the blade. One end of this tube is connected to a venturi-type nozzle that
draws by vacuum the ice fragments from the tube. The other end of the tube is
connected to a compressed air source that supplies sufficient air to balance the vacuum
caused by the venturi. In this manner, ice fragments are instantly fluidized and moved to
the nozzle by the induced flow

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SALIENT FEATURES
a) No mechanical Intervention

In this process design, there is no mechanical intervention within the ice particle
production area. This allows ice particles to flow with no interference. This process
takes advantage of the natural fragmentation of a stressed ice sheet to create particles
and not rely on any mechanical means to size them.

b) No dust, minimum waste

As ice particles disintegrate on impact, they create a blast mist, which can help to
suppress dust from the operation and to cool the environment for the workers. This
is particularly helpful in the summer. Evaporation will normally reduce the net liquid
waste to about 50-70 litres per hour.

APPLICATIONS

Iron & Aluminum Foundry

Tyre Mould Cleaning
Pharmaceutical
Food Processing
Printing Presses
Automobile Production (die casting, spot welding, paint shop)
Rubber Plastic Injection Molding
Pulp Paper
Electronics (switch gear, semi conductors, circuit boards)
Power Stations (generators, transformers, electric motors)  
Industrial Maintenance Cleaning Services
Disaster Recovery (fire water damaged machines and buildings)
Historic Restorations

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BENEFITS AND COMPARISONS

Benefits: - Below given are some of the benefits of ice blasting that will definitely prove
its importance in the current finishing process scenario.

The Table 1 shows that ice blasting is far better process than other de-burring
methods which involves the use of soaps, chemicals and water based solutions for
de-burring of finished components. This means, the process of ice blasting helps the
user to get the lustrous finish that he always demands from components on which
various manufacturing and finishing operations have been performed, but is not free
from burr.

Table No.1

Feature Benefits

Unique 'Displace-Scrub-Flush'-de- Superior cleanliness

burring mechanism
Non-abrasive, no damage to surface

Very efficient and effective cleaning:

speed

Using only 100 litre of (normal tap) Minimal waste - lower waste
water per hour management costs
Minimal waste - environmental friendly

Widely available, minimal logistical

costs. No generation of dust 

Relative low pressure; maximum of 12 Safe working environment

bar
No damage to substrate

Low maintenance costs

No certification procedures required

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No use of chemicals Environmental friendly

Safe working environment

No additional costs

Very reliable Ice making process Proven reliability worldwide, used for
decades

Feature Benefits

DISADVANTAGES
1. It is necessary that the surface temperature of the object being ice blasted is
always above 0 C as ice particles melt on impact.
2. Ice blasting will not remove deep rust or metal burrs as it is less abrasive.

EXAMPLE OF INDUSTRIAL CLEANING (GEAR DE-BURRING)

The Process

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Gear De-burring

The Gear cleaning process lifts and rotates the part as the blast nozzle moves
over the part. The gear is being lifted and rotated. The nozzle, on the left, directs the ice
on the gear teeth. At its uppermost position, the bottom of the gear is exposed to the
blast stream. The top and inside of the gear is cleaned when the gear is in the lower
position. This two-axis lift-and-rotate movement allows the part to be cleaned both
inside, outside and all around in a very short time. The Blast nozzle pivots and follows
the gear as it is lifted. The gear rotates at low RPM so that it is blasted all the way
around. The normal process includes a dwell in the lift and nozzle movement so that at
least two revolutions of ice blast are concentrated on the gear teeth themselves. This
insures the removal of any chips or residue that may have been caught in the root of the
gear tooth.

Before
After

CONCLUSIONS

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Ice blast is used in more conventional de-burring applications such as transmission

valve body parts where fine burrs from machining and milling must be removed. In a
manufacturing environment, ice blast de-burring and cleaning offer the following
benefits:

1. High de-burring efficiency.

2. Superior cleanliness.
3. Low waste generation.
4. Simple equipment requiring little maintenance.
5. Compact size of equipment.
6. No recycling/waste water processing requirements.
7. Low operating cost.
8. Low capital cost.
9. Environmentally sound.

The main objective of this paper was to give others an overview of new trends in
De-burring process i.e. Ice blasting.

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REFERENCES
1. "Supersonic Abrasive Ice-Blasting," An Environmentally Friendly Method of
Removing Paint Or Grease From Surfaces, Developed with NSF Funding, internet
posting by Beth Gaston, Oct. 5, 1994, pp. 1-2.
2. "Ice Flake Air Jet Surface Cleaner", internet marketing information and
correspondence, The Initiative Center of the Negev, Jun. 27, and 28, 1996, pp. 1-2
3. http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/search-results.html?
search=ice+blasting&imageField2.x=14&imageField2.y=10
4. http://www.iceblast.net/faq00.htm

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