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Pharmaceutical · Miami, FL
Semiconductor Equipment Ice Blasting
When people call about semiconductor equipment, the constraint is usually the same. 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 process residue, flux, particulate and film on sensitive equipment. These environments have documented cleaning requirements and very low tolerance for residue, moisture or abrasive media. Dry ice leaves nothing behind because the media is gone.
Work is scoped against the facility's own procedures and containment requirements. The people who call us about semiconductor equipment are usually facilities and validation teams, and the thing they are actually worried about is introducing a contaminant while removing one.
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 pharmaceutical 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 semiconductor equipment?
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
How this compares to the usual methods
- Hand scraping
Hours of work for an inconsistent result, with gouges where the blade slipped.
- Media blasting
Grit removes material to do its job, so a machined face or a plated part pays for the cleaning.
- 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
Good at softening, bad at leaving. There is always a residue and always a drum to get rid of.
- Dry ice
Cold breaks the bond and the media vanishes. The substrate is untouched and there is no second mess to clean up.
What comes off
The deposits we see most
Most calls involve one of the following. The common factor is a bond between two things that should not be bonded.
- Resin and mold release
Production residue cured onto tooling. Solvent softens it and leaves its own film; the ice lifts it and takes nothing with it.
- Paint and coatings
Removed selectively where the substrate underneath has to survive, which rules out most abrasive approaches.
- 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
Carbonized product build-up in a plant where neither standing water nor a chemical film is acceptable.
- Grease and oil
Oil film is the layer everything else sticks to. Remove it and half the job is already done.
- Carbon and soot
Heat-bonded black deposit. Because heat put it there, a sudden cold front is what breaks its grip.
How a job runs
What happens once you call
If you have not seen this done before, the process is worth reading once. Nothing below is hidden in a footnote.
- 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
The ice is gone on impact. What is on the floor afterward came off your machine, and clearing it is ours to do.
- 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
Describe the equipment and the mess. If it cannot come offline that changes the plan, so say so early.
- We look at access and containment
The layout decides the method more often than the contaminant does. We work out reach and containment before quoting anything.
What happens in your space
The part will be cold when we finish. Sometimes that means a short wait before handling; sometimes it means a film of condensation as it warms back up.
Air comes from our own compressor. You do not need to provide power, water or a connection of any kind.
We cover what should not be hit before anything gets blasted. It takes minutes and saves arguments.
Solid carbon dioxide leaves no residue at all. What it does do is displace air, so an enclosed space gets ventilated as part of the job rather than as a precaution added later.
Tell us what needs cleaning.
Give us the job, the address and a rough description, pictures if you have them. The call back comes from Giancarlo or Kenny directly.