Dry ice cleaning in the plastics industry

Advantages of dry ice cleaning in general…

Mold cleaning in the plastics industry is often very time-consuming due to the complex structure of the tools and molds as well as the high quality requirements and requires the time-consuming use of mechanical cleaning processes in combination with the use of chemical, aggressive and often health-hazardous cleaning agents. Often the molds become scratched or their structure changes over time until they can no longer be used - which can quickly mean a five to six-figure new investment. Dry ice cleaning offers many advantages here - it is not abrasive and requires absolutely no water and significantly less chemicals. The dry ice, which is accelerated by compressed air at -79 degrees, increases its volume 700 times when it hits the molds and thus removes dirt caused by release agents, oil, grease or outgassing without leaving any residue. Dry ice cleaning has therefore been discussed and used for some time as an alternative to manual chemical cleaning. However, the blasting devices currently available on the market are often very heavy and therefore unwieldy, extremely loud at times of over 120 dB and require compressed air that often cannot be operated without adjustments to the compressed air lines and compressors. Added to this are high purchase prices, sometimes over EUR 20.000, high dry ice consumption and therefore high ongoing operating costs.