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Data · Miami, FL
Mission-Critical Facility Ice Blasting
Mission-Critical Facility comes to us when the usual cleaning methods are too harsh for the part. We clean it without water, without chemicals and without anything abrasive touching the surface.
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 mission-critical facility 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
The pellet is soft and sublimates on impact, so the work is thermal rather than mechanical. Machined faces, plating, paint and gaskets survive it.
- Low moisture
No standing water in a harness, a bearing or a cabinet, and no dry time before the equipment goes back into service.
- No secondary waste
Sand, soda and walnut shell all have to be swept and hauled. Dry ice leaves only the contaminant it removed.
- Often no teardown
Much of this work is done in place, which is usually where the real saving is. The labor is in the disassembly, not the cleaning.
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 mission-critical facility?
Usually far less than you would expect, and often not at all. Cleaning in place is where most of the saving comes from, because the labor is normally in the teardown and reassembly.
How much mess does it make?
Far less than the alternatives, because the blasting media disappears. What is left is the contaminant itself, which we contain and clean up.
Do you come to us?
Yes. The whole rig is mobile. Compressor, hose and operator arrive at your shop, plant, driveway or dock, anywhere across South Florida from Miami out to roughly a hundred miles.
What does a job cost?
It depends on the equipment, the contaminant and the access, so we will not throw a number at you over the phone without understanding the work. Describe the job and we will give you a real figure.
How soon can you look at it?
Send photos and a short description and one of the owners gets back to you. If you have a shutdown or a deadline, say so up front and we will tell you honestly whether we can hit it.
The comparison
Why not just pressure wash it
- Pressure washing
Water gets into everything and has to come out again before the equipment runs. Around electrics it is off the table entirely.
- Solvent and degreaser
Softens the contaminant but leaves a film, fumes and a disposal problem, and attacks finishes you meant to keep.
- Hand scraping
Slow, inconsistent, and the tool marks the surface. Fine for a small area, unworkable across a machine.
- Media blasting
Effective and indiscriminate. On soft metal or a finished surface it does damage you then have to fix.
- Dry ice
Thermal shock breaks the bond. The pellet sublimates, so nothing abrasive touches the part and nothing is left to collect but the contaminant.
What comes off
What this takes off
The method does not care much what the contaminant is, only that it sits on top of something. Here is the usual list.
- Salt and corrosion product
Salt deposit and the oxidation it starts. Anything abrasive removes the protection along with the salt.
- Ink and printing residue
Dried ink and coating build-up on rollers and press components, where the surface texture is the product.
- Food residue
Burnt-on product, fat and sugar on processing gear, with no chemical residue left on a contact surface.
- Grease and oil
The soft film that holds dust and swarf against metal. It is what makes a part feel dirty long after it looks clean, and it comes off first.
- Carbon and soot
Baked carbon on a manifold, oven or weld fixture. Thermal shock is exactly the wrong thing for the bond holding it on, which is why this works.
- Adhesive and sealant
Cured sealant, old gasket, tape glue and sound deadening, the residue left when something was removed but its bond was not.
- Resin and mold release
Cured process residue on a mold or fixture. The surface has to come out dimensionally unchanged, which rules out anything abrasive.
How a job runs
The sequence, start to finish
There is no mystery to how these jobs run, and no part of it we would rather you did not ask about.
- You describe the job
The machine, the deposit and the downtime you can afford. Those three things decide the whole job, and we would rather know all of them before quoting.
- We look at access and containment
Siting the compressor, masking what must not be touched, and catching what comes off, settled before the first pellet.
- We test a small area
Settings get proven somewhere nobody looks before they get used somewhere everybody does. What is correct on cast iron will mark aluminum, so the test is not a formality.
- We blast, then clean up
One mess instead of two: the pellet vanishes and we take away what it removed.
- You look before we pack up
The job is not finished because we say so. It is finished when you have looked at it.
Before we turn the rig on
The rig needs compressed air, which the truck supplies. There is no hookup to find and nothing of yours to plug into.
Anything nearby that should not be touched gets masked before we start. That is quicker than explaining it afterward.
The media is solid CO2, nothing toxic and nothing left behind, but it pushes oxygen out of a closed room. Ventilation gets planned before the hose is connected.
The process is loud. Hearing protection is standard for anyone in the working area, which is why you will see ear defenders in most of our photographs.
Send us the job.
Tell us what the machine is, where it is and what is on it. A photo or two speeds it up. One of the owners calls you back.