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Government · Miami, FL
Government Fleet Ice Blasting
Government Fleet is one of the jobs dry ice blasting was made for. 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 carbon, corrosion product, paint and accumulated field grime on fleet and facility equipment. Public equipment is kept long past the point where replacement is easy, so cleaning has to preserve what is underneath rather than wear it away.
Scheduling works around the department's own operating hours and approvals. The people who call us about government fleet are usually fleet supervisors and facility managers, and the thing they are actually worried about is damaging equipment that is difficult to replace or re-certify.
The method
Why dry ice and not the alternatives
- Non-abrasive
Tolerances stay where they were. Nothing hard hits the part, so a mold face or a bearing seat is not worn by the cleaning.
- Low moisture
Moisture is where rust and electrical faults start. Cleaning with dry ice keeps water off the part from start to finish.
- No secondary waste
Abrasive media has to be contained, swept and thrown away. With dry ice there is nothing to recover except what came off your equipment.
- Often no teardown
We clean most equipment where it stands. Taking things apart and putting them back is the expensive part of any cleaning job, and here it is usually skipped.
More government work
Related jobs we get called for
Questions we get asked first
Will it damage the surface underneath?
Generally not. The pellet works by temperature rather than friction, so the surface underneath is left alone. If there is any doubt about a finish, we test it before anyone sees the result.
Do you have to take the equipment apart for government fleet?
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?
Very little. The ice is gone on contact, so there is no sand or soda to sweep out of corners afterward. You just have the grime, and we collect that.
Do you come to us?
Every job is on site. Your car can stay in your garage and your boat at the dock while we work. We cover South Florida, from Miami out to about a hundred miles.
What does a job cost?
Price follows the work: how much is on the surface and what it takes to get the rig close. Once we have seen photos and know the setup, we 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
How this compares to the usual methods
- Media blasting
It works by removing material, which is the problem. Acceptable on heavy steel, damaging on soft alloy, plating or a machined surface.
- Pressure washing
It is fast and it is wet, which is fine outdoors and unusable on anything with a winding in it.
- Solvent and degreaser
It dissolves the deposit and often the finish underneath, then leaves a film behind either way.
- Hand scraping
Hours of work for an inconsistent result, with gouges where the blade slipped.
- Dry ice
Thermal contraction cracks the bond between deposit and surface, then the pellet gasses off. Nothing abrasive, nothing wet, nothing left.
What comes off
The deposits we see most
These are the deposits behind most of our calls. Each one is something stuck to a surface that should have stayed clean.
- Grease and oil
Oil film is the layer everything else sticks to. Remove it and half the job is already done.
- Carbon and soot
Black buildup from heat and smoke on burners, housings and fixtures. Thermal shock does the work here, with no grit grinding at the part.
- Adhesive and sealant
The stubborn film under old tape, or the gasket that tore and left half of itself behind.
- 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
Salt deposit and the oxidation it starts. Anything abrasive removes the protection along with the salt.
- Ink and printing residue
Ink and coating on anilox and press rollers, surfaces where changing the texture changes the print.
How a job runs
What happens once you call
There are no surprises built into how we work. Read the steps once and you will know what to expect on the day.
- We look at access and containment
If something has to be unbolted to reach the dirt, we say so before we arrive. Most of the time it doesn’t, but we will not spring it on you on the day.
- We test a small area
The test is short and it is never skipped. Getting the pressure and pellet size wrong on a visible face is the one mistake this method can make, and a hidden patch is how we keep from making it.
- We blast, then clean up
The media disappears on contact; the contaminant does not. Gathering what came off is included, not a line added afterward.
- You look before we pack up
A second pass while everything is still connected is free in every sense. A return trip is not.
- 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.
What happens in your space
Everything the rig needs arrives with it. No tap, no drain, no outlet.
We cover what should not be hit before anything gets blasted. It takes minutes and saves arguments.
We look at the room before the truck is unloaded. Carbon dioxide is harmless in open air but pushes oxygen out of a tight space, so an enclosed job gets ventilation planned in.
Dry ice blasting is noisy. Anyone close to the work wears hearing protection, and we will ask you to keep your distance or put some on.
Describe what you are dealing with.
A rough outline of the job is fine. Add the location and photos, and expect to hear from Giancarlo or Kenny directly.