There are many cleaning steps in plastics and rubber processing. In-situ molds often need cleaning, as do many parts prior to injection molding, painting or coating.
Conventional methods have a number of drawbacks. Aqueous cleaning, for example, can leave residual moisture on the product, and the water (containing detergent and the removed contaminants) often needs post-treatment. Cleaning with solvents releases volatile organic compounds. Dry abrasive blasting can be effective, but may be too aggressive for the task at hand. In addition, the resulting dust may require mitigation steps to avoid impacts on health and to ensure appropriate waste disposal - which can turn out to be costly.
Our CRYOCLEAN® offering is an attractive, environmentally friendly and cost-effective answer to many of these cleaning challenges. Created specifically for cleaning challenges in plastics and rubber applications, not only does CRYOCLEAN benefit productivity and product quality, it also enhances environmental performance and overcomes the downside of alternative methods. Looking beyond cleaning to finishing steps, cryogenic gases are also an effective way to remove flash and burr from plastic parts.
CRYOCLEAN uses solid carbon dioxide, also known as dry ice, as the cleaning agent. Similar to sand blasting, dry ice particles are propelled by compressed air and impact the contaminated surface. The cleaning effect of dry ice is based on a combination of embrittlement and cracking of the contaminant, kinetic impulse, and a gas jet resulting from the explosive sublimation of dry ice upon impact.
Unlike other cleaning methods, CRYOCLEAN avoids or significantly reduces the need for cleaning agents (which require disposal afterwards). It works without solvents and does not leave any moisture behind, making it ideal for in-situ cleaning of equipment.
We offer a range of CRYOCLEAN alternatives for different cleaning tasks. CRYOCLEAN Pellets work with pre-produced grain sized particles and are predominantly used for manual cleaning of equipment and tools. CRYOCLEAN Snow is mainly used as an upstream or downstream process step on fully automated serial production of products. CRYOCLEAN Snow+ combines the strengths of dry ice and abrasives for manual cleaning during production.
