At the end of last month I moderated a webinar on asset management. Specifically, cleaning with dry ice. How does that relate to asset management? Well consider that clean equipment leads to lower scrap rates, less unscheduled down time, better asset-utilization rates and longer asset life. And according to the presenter, Tyson Marlowe, clean equipment eliminates waste. Marlowe is the director of global development and training services for Cold Jet, LLC. Cold Jet, which was the sponsor for the webinar, produces and distributes dry-ice cleaning and dry-ice production equipment.
Two things stood out for me during the webinar: One, you can use dry ice to clean while machines are running. Two, dry ice leaves no residue.
Marlowe notes that when the dry ice particles hit, they sublimate -- they go directly from the solid to a gas, which means they disappear. There is no secondary waste so it’s environmentally friendly. It also allows you to eliminate or reduce chemicals and it’s a dry clean, so it's non-conductive. Also, dry ice is very soft. It is non-abrasive on most metal surfaces, so it cleans without damage.
“I've seen ink removed from paper without punching through the paper. I've seen somebody taking an M off of an M&M candy without breaking the candy shell,” says Marlowe.
So if you don't want to disrupt production and you want to clean things right where they are even while they're hot or connected to electric, you may want to consider cleaning with dry ice.
To view the on-demand version of the webinar – including a robust Q&A session at the end that featured questions from the audience, visit our registration page. Scroll to the bottom to choose any of our on-demand webinars.