Ice Blasting

Ice Blasting

INTRODUCTION:

Ice blasting is a simple process that uses compressed air and ice crystals, shot through a hose and directed with a nozzle, a fine powerful mist is blasted onto a surface, acting like a chisel to remove debris. Ice blasting is a non-abrasive, cleaning process that uses ordinary tap water, compressed air and electricity to create an environmentally friendly, cost effective method to address a variety of cleaning needs.

HISTORY:

The Department of National Defence in Canada contracted Dr. Sam Visaisouk to determine the feasibility of ice blasting for cleaning in confined spaces such as inside ships. The prospect of a dustless abrasive blasting process was very appealing on environmental and worker safety compliance grounds. This effort led to the first operating commercial ice blast machine in 1992. These ice blast machines had complex operating system controls and required frequent defrosting as very cold air was used for fluidizing and transporting ice particles from source to nozzle. At that time, any ice blockages were attributed to partial melting of ice particles, which would favour agglomeration. The use of very cold fluidizing air was deemed absolutely necessary. Periodic system defrosting was required as a result.

During this period, other methods of ice blast were introduced elsewhere. Gary Settles of Penn State University patented a process in which a cryogenic fluid froze atomized water in a nozzle for blasting. A French version (briefly licensed by Schlick) utilized liquid nitrogen to freeze small water droplets to form ice particles for blasting. Both of these processes relied on cryogenic fluid at very low temperatures and could not be easily scaled up for robust industrial requirements.

In 1996 Sam Visaisouk took a drastic change in the method of producing and fluidizing ice particles that resulted in patent US5, 913,711. He and Norm Fisher later produced a working model, patents US6, 001,000 and US6, 270,394. This breakthrough method remains the base of the state of the art ice blast systems to date till 2003.


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