What builds up, and why it matters
On this kind of work the problem is fine dust and particulate loading on switchgear, busway, fans and mechanical plant. A data hall cannot take water and cannot take downtime. Cleaning has to be dry, contained, and finished inside the window you were given.
Work is planned around the maintenance window and the containment the facility requires. The people who call us about data center busway are usually critical facility and data center operations teams, and the thing they are actually worried about is particulate migrating somewhere it should not, or a window overrunning.
The method
Why dry ice and not the alternatives
- Non-abrasive
Cold does most of the work here. The contaminant shrinks and lets go, and the surface below it is left as it was.
- Low moisture
There is no hose of water and no wet floor. The area around the job stays dry while we work.
- No secondary waste
No secondary waste stream. Nothing is left from the blasting itself, and the contaminant that comes off gets contained and cleaned up by us.
- Often no teardown
Panels, guards and assemblies can often stay put. The nozzle reaches into recesses, so the hours normally spent stripping a machine down go back to production.
More data work
Related jobs we get called for
Questions we get asked first
Will it damage the surface underneath?
On most substrates, no. The pellet is soft and sublimates on impact, so it does thermal work rather than mechanical work. We still test an inconspicuous spot first on anything unusual.
Do you have to take the equipment apart for data center busway?
For most jobs, no. Reassembly is where time and money normally go, and cleaning in place skips both. If a part has to come off, we raise it when we look at the job, never halfway through.
How much mess does it make?
It depends on how much is caked on, since that is all that comes off. The ice adds nothing to the pile, and we clean up what is there.
Do you come to us?
Yes, that is how we work. Nothing needs to be loaded or shipped. We bring the full setup to you anywhere in South Florida, from Miami out to around a hundred miles.
What does a job cost?
We price every job on its own, because a greasy engine bay and a carbon-caked oven are different work. Guessing over the phone helps nobody. Send the details and one of the owners comes back with a figure we will stand behind.
How soon can you look at it?
As soon as we have seen what the job is. Send a description and a photo, an owner reads it and comes back with a date, and because the rig travels to you there is nothing of yours to ship first.
The comparison
How this compares to the usual methods
- Solvent and degreaser
It loosens the mess and leaves its own behind, along with fumes and something to dispose of.
- Hand scraping
Labor-intensive and uneven, and whatever you scrape with eventually marks what you are scraping.
- Media blasting
It takes the top off whatever it touches. That is the point on rusted plate and the problem everywhere else.
- Pressure washing
The water has to go somewhere, and on most equipment that somewhere is inside it.
- Dry ice
The pellet is soft and the mechanism is temperature, not abrasion. It turns to gas on impact, so the only thing left to sweep up is what came off.
What comes off
What comes off, and why
Dry ice is good at one thing: breaking the grip a deposit has on whatever is underneath. Below are the kinds of buildup that bring in most of our calls.
- Adhesive and sealant
Sound deadening, tape residue, gasket material and sealant that has cured onto a face it was never meant to stay on.
- Resin and mold release
Release agent and resin build-up on tooling, where a solvent fix trades one residue for another.
- Paint and coatings
Taken off in a controlled way when what is underneath matters more than speed.
- Salt and corrosion product
A constant in South Florida. Removing it without stripping the protective finish is the whole trick.
- Ink and printing residue
Dried ink and coating build-up on rollers and press components, where the surface texture is the product.
- Food residue
Carbonized product, fat, starch and sugar build-up on processing equipment, cleaned without chemicals touching a food contact surface.
- Grease and oil
The greasy base coat that traps grit and dust. It releases early and takes the loose material with it.
How a job runs
Nothing about this should be a surprise
Nobody should have to guess what they booked. This is every stage of a job in the order it happens.
- You describe the job
Tell us the machine, the mess and the constraint. A couple of photos answers more than a long description, and if the honest answer is that something else suits it better, we say so.
- We look at access and containment
Access drives the plan: reach, siting, masking, and the route the removed material takes off the job. It is the part customers think about least and we think about most.
- We test a small area
Some coatings are meant to stay. A test on an unseen spot shows whether the ice takes only the grime or starts to work on the finish underneath.
- We blast, then clean up
Nothing is left of the pellet, so the only thing to collect is what was on your equipment. That collection is part of the work we quoted.
- You look before we pack up
The job is not finished because we say so. It is finished when you have looked at it.
What to expect on site
Everything the rig needs arrives with it. No tap, no drain, no outlet.
Masking happens first. Whatever is adjacent and vulnerable gets covered before the hose is picked up.
The one thing the ice itself asks for is air. As the CO2 turns to gas it fills an enclosed space, which is why ventilation is part of our setup on every indoor job.
Expect noise. Everybody inside the working area wears hearing protection, us included.
Send us the job.
Write a line or two about the job and where it is. One of the owners, Giancarlo or Kenny, gets back to you with honest answers.