"We wanted to find the best way to clean surfaces that would have the least amount of impact and collateral damage with little or no clean up afterwards."
Dry ice-blasting accelerates dry ice in a pressurized air stream and directed at a surfaces for cleaning. The method is similar to other blasting techniques such as sand blasting, sodablasting, or plastic bead blasting. Yet, dry-ice blasting leaves little or no chemical residue as dry ice sublimates at room temperature.
The dry-ice pellets themselves are soft, and far less dense than other materials utilized in blasting-cleaning. The pellet disapates almost immediately on impact, transferring minimal kinetic energy to the surface on impact.
Dry ice blast cleaning is one of the best new ways to clean surfaces to their original condition. The surface is immediately available to paint, as there is very little for drying or dangerous solvents to be removed once the process is complete.
Dry ice blast cleaning is also used for restoration of fire damaged buildings and rooms. The dry ice blasting process can successfully remove char and smoke damage to wood and other materials, and the process itself is less toxic that other processes, with less residual damage and little or no clean up afterwards.