In today’s fast-paced industrial world, efficiency and cost-effectiveness are critical. For contractors and manufacturers, keeping operations running smoothly often hinges on the ability to clean and maintain equipment without unnecessary delays. Dry ice blasting has emerged as a powerful solution, offering a non-abrasive, eco-friendly way to clean various fin fans, gas turbines, and other components that collect debris. However, many businesses still rely on outsourcing this essential service. While outsourcing may seem convenient, buying your own dry ice blasting equipment can lead to significant long-term savings and operational benefits.

The Long-Term Financial Advantage

While the initial investment in the machine might seem substantial, the cost quickly becomes justified when you consider the savings on labour and outsourcing fees. Contractors and factories can independently perform cleanup jobs as needed, eliminating the need to pay third-party providers every time a project arises. Over time, these savings accumulate.

One of our clients, a manufacturer in Hamilton that produces insulated steel panels, saw a dramatic reduction in cleaning costs. Prior to purchasing a machine from Wickens Dry Ice Blasting, employees would spend up to an hour hand-washing the molds for the panels. When we demonstrated our machine, the same cleanup job was completed in just 11 seconds. This efficiency saved our clients time, manual labor costs, and reduced interruption to production.

Faster Turnaround Times

If your facility needs an emergency cleanup job and you rely on a third party, you can run into costly delays. The provider or subcontractor needs time to assess the damage, bring the crew on site, and get the job done. In some cases, your regular provider might not have availability when you need it most. By cutting out the middleman, you will avoid these risks and minimize downtime. Your internal team can also schedule routine cleaning using dry ice blasting equipment to mitigate problems caused by debris build up.

Unlike traditional cleaning methods that use water or chemicals, dry ice pellets sublimate once they’ve hit a surface, meaning there’s no cleanup job after the cleanup. Equipment within facilities typically needs to be disassembled to avoid damaging delicate components when cleaning, but dry ice blasting eliminates this step due to its non-abrasive nature that leaves zero residue.

Why Wickens Dry Ice Blasting Equipment is a Smart Investment

Not all dry ice blasting machines are created equal. When you purchase from Wickens Dry Ice Blasting, you’re investing in state-of-the-art equipment that provides fast, effective, and eco-friendly cleaning solutions. Here’s why Wickens is the right choice:

• Expert Design and Approval: All equipment is designed or approved by a team of dry ice blasting experts.
• 12-Month Warranty: Every machine comes with a 12-month warranty for added peace of mind, with extended warranties available upon request.
• Demos and Rentals: You can try before you buy to ensure you’re happy with the machine.
• Comprehensive Training: Wickens provides thorough training to ensure your team can operate the equipment safely and efficiently.
• Customized Packages: We’ve created equipment packages specifically designed for contractors and manufacturers so that you don’t need to worry about buying the required parts separately.

Factories and contractors who need routine cleaning services can save time and money by investing in their own dry ice blasting equipment. By purchasing with Wickens, your people will receive the right tools and training based on your business’ unique needs.

Explore our packages here and schedule a demo to see the power of owning your own dry ice blasting unit!

When it comes to wine, quality is everything. Yet quality doesn’t only derive from a winery’s ability to produce the perfect blend of grapes, but also from the techniques that they use while making their wine.

Dry ice blasting has been used in the winemaking industry for over 10 years now, where it has been used as an environmentally-friendly cleaning technique that has reduced costs for wineries and has even created new techniques in winemaking.

Cleaning Wine Barrels

Dry ice blasting is an innovative technique to clean and reuse wine barrels, allowing wineries to extend the life of wine barrels and reduce annual costs. Cleaning wine barrels with this method has been analyzed under scientific study, where it was found that dry ice removes 98-100% of contaminants from the barrels.

Dry ice blasts inside the barrels, removing a thin layer of wine-soaked wood and tartrate crystals from any previous aging, allowing them to be used again. This helps vineyards and winemakers avoid purchasing barrels on an annual basis, saving them money, and leaving a positive environmental impact.

While removing contaminants, the blasting process has also been shown to have a positive impact on flavour, with increased notes of boisé and vanilla identified after aging wine in dry ice-blasted barrels.

Cryomaceration

Dry ice can be used not only for cleaning but also in the maceration and transport stages of the winemaking process.

Wickens Dry Ice Blasting offers dry ice blasting services for cleaning, and dry ice pelletizers to produce high-density dry ice pellets on-site, which can then be added to the maceration process as wine is prepared. This process will inhibit fermentation by reducing the temperature of the grapes.

Performing cryomaceration can impact the wine by creating a more organoleptic wine than traditional fermentation, inhibiting bacteria growth, reducing oxidation, and producing a higher quality colour, smell, taste, and feel in the final product.

Following the same technique of applying dry ice to grapes in travel, winemakers can prevent exposure to higher temperatures and slow down the chances of fermentation. This helps maintain the quality of grapes and avoid spoilage in winemaking facilities.

Food Safe Cleaning

Many cleaning methods require chemicals and additions that can impact the flavour or even safety of wines, but dry ice blasting is a non-toxic, food-safe cleaning method that is approved by the FDA.

Dry ice pellets are made of carbon dioxide, which is the only material used in dry ice blasting. As carbon dioxide sublimates and turns to a gas it disappears after use, leaving no secondary waste to clean up.

Dry ice blasting can be used to clean and sanitize wine barrels, wine barrel rooms, wine caves, and winery equipment to clean and protect from mould spores, bacteria, fungus, and more.

As wineries continue to introduce new changes to their processes and embrace new technologies, they will be able to further diversify their products, improve the quality of their wines, and make their production process more efficient.

For more information about dry ice blast cleaning or obtaining a pelletizer for use, contact us today.

Fin fans are commonly used in the natural gas processing, refining, petrochemical, oil and gas, HVAC, and LNG industries. They are essential in the functioning of turbines, engines, and other systems. They work by forcing the air over a set of coils, which cools the air before elimination. 

Fin fans require regular cleaning to ensure optimal cooling and lower production costs. The cleaning method needs to be non-abrasive and not cause any corrosion or force dirt, dust, and unwanted particles further into the system.

Dry ice blasting, a non-abrasive and eco-friendly cleaning method, is ideal for fin fans. Compared to other industrial cleaning methods, dry ice blasting eliminates years of dust and debris without damaging the delicate fins. Along with no damage caused to the system, there is also no residue, moisture, or waste left over. This prevents mould, mildew, and corrosion and eliminates the cost to vacuum residual water from the ground. Dry ice blasting can also be used year-round because, unlike cleaning methods that use water and chemicals, it will not freeze during the colder months.  

Dry Ice Blasting Improves Fin Fan Efficiency

With dry ice blasting, you can improve the efficiency of fin fan coolers by up to 35% by cleaning out the built-up dust and debris and allowing air to pass through the fins.

Dry ice blasting cleans out debris and dust with no secondary waste, compared to water and foam applications that must be cleaned from the area once the job is completed.

As soon as dry ice pellets come into contact with the surface of the fin fan, the impact causes them to sublimate back into gas. This gas expands, which causes the outer coating – i.e., the dirt, dust, or grime – to loosen and break free.

How Does Dry Ice Blasting Work?

This cleaning method uses dry ice pellets, a by-product of other industrial processes made from reclaimed Liquid Carbon Dioxide (C02). Once the pellets are blasted to the contaminated surface, the resulting micro-thermal shock severs the bond between the coating of grime and the substrate. As the dry ice pellets vaporize, the force of the rapidly expanding vapour helps lift dirt from the area, leaving a clean surface. All that remains is to dispose of the substance/debris that was removed – since the dry ice pellets vaporize, there is no residual waste from the cleaning process itself.

Dry ice blasting is safe for equipment, people, and the environment. This makes it the ideal solution to be used in busy areas and workspaces.

Contact Wickens today to learn about the use of dry ice blasting for fin fan cleaning.

Wickens Dry Ice Blasting tackles the toughest jobs across Ontario, offering fire restoration, mould remediation, asbestos abatement, lead paint abatement, and more. Contact us today for a consultation or emergency service!

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Eco-Friendly Cleaning: How Dry Ice Blasting Fits into CSR Strategy 

5 Reasons Why Dry Ice Blasting is Worth the Investment 

Organizations are increasingly being evaluated based on their work around corporate social responsibility (CSR). Having a CSR strategy allows an organization to demonstrate how it views its responsibility to wider stakeholders and not just shareholders and investors. Through CSR activities, companies work towards improving the impact their business operations have on the wellbeing of employees, community, society and the environment in general.

Despite recognizing the importance of CSR, organizations may find it difficult to put it into practice. The task is not easy or quick and can prove to be overwhelming. Therefore, when developing policy, management may not automatically think about their cleaning processes or realize that this may be a good place to start. It can be!

Cleaning Without Waste

Traditional cleaning methods such as soda blasting, sand blasting, and chemical and solvent cleaning methods are more popular but their carbon footprint is not as impressive as dry ice blasting. Cleaning with dry ice leaves no carbon footprint at all because the process does not result in any additional secondary waste.

Dry ice blasting is an industrial cleaning system that is non-abrasive, non-toxic and as its name suggests completely dry. Its uses are many and can be applied across a multitude of industries including aerospace, food and beverage, foundry and historical restoration. The process uses dry ice pellets that are a by-product of other industrial processes made from reclaimed Liquid Carbon Dioxide (C02). Once the pellets are blasted to the contaminated surface, the resulting micro-thermal shock severs the bond between the coating of grime and the substrate. As the dry ice pellets vaporize, the force of the rapidly expanding vapour helps lift dirt from the area, leaving a clean surface. All that remains is to dispose of the substance/debris that was removed – since the dry ice pellets vaporize, there is no residual waste from the cleaning process itself!

Avoiding contamination with dry ice blasting

As well as the benefits of not having any secondary waste, dry ice cleaning is also recommended to prevent downstream contamination which can be the case with sand, soda or any cleaning that involves water. Furthermore, there are increased risks to the natural environment in cleaning where dry ice pellets are not used, especially if the process of choice contains chemicals.

CSR is not just about leaving the environment in good shape, but as explained previously it also concerns the health and safety of an organization’s workforce. Adopting dry ice blasting methods for cleaning workflows can reduce the levels of danger that employees are exposed to such as airborne substances and harmful chemical waste produced via processes that use chemicals and solvents.

For a CSR strategy that doesn’t just look good on paper and is deliverable on a practical level, it’s certainly wise to consider dry ice blasting.

Wickens Dry Ice Blasting tackles the toughest jobs across Ontario, offering fire restoration, mould remediation, asbestos abatement, lead paint abatement, and more. Contact us today for a consultation or emergency service!

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Why Dry Ice Blasting is the Number 1 Solution for Mould Remediation

There are lots of different industrial cleaning solutions on the market today – and dry ice blasting is quickly becoming one of the most popular. Upfront, dry ice blasting may appear to have a higher cost, however, it’s important to consider a number of factors to see how each industrial cleaning method can impact a business.

Clean up costs, potential downtimes, and other factors also affect a company’s bottom line – and should be considered when choosing an industrial cleaning service.  Coincidentally, they’re also a few of the reasons why we believe dry ice blasting is worth the investment.

Read more about the advantages of dry ice blasting below:

Dry Ice Blasting is Quick

The carbon dioxide dry ice pellets that are blasted out at high speeds almost immediately turn into a gas. That’s the perfect recipe for getting into hard to reach spaces that would be nearly impossible to clean by hand.  While traditional methods may require equipment to be disassembled and moved to a designated cleaning area, dry ice blasting can be performed right on the line, resulting in a cleaning process that can begin – and end – within hours, rather than days.

Dry Ice Blasting Will Shorten Potential Downtimes

Dry ice blasting’s unique cleaning process – using an extreme cold shock to break the bond between the coating and the substrate – eliminates many of the negative elements usually associated with industrial cleaning.  Dry ice blasting requires no additional hand scrubbing, drying or cool downtime, and results in no residual blast clean up.  All of that helps to minimize any potential downtimes for a business and getting it up and running as quickly as possible.

Dry Ice Blasting is Non-Abrasive

Other industrial cleaning methods may damage switches, panels, or belts, as gritty material, such as sand, is blasted out under high pressure.  Dry ice blasting, on the other hand, is non-abrasive.  Instead of friction, dry ice blasting uses the vapour that’s formed when dry ice pellets are blasted out at high speeds to remove dirt and grime.  Therefore, dry ice blasting can deliver a high quality clean that’s safe for a variety of materials and surfaces.

Dry Ice Blasting is Safe for Electrical Components

While the more traditional industrial cleaning methods can damage electrical components, dry ice blasting can be used on switches, wiring, photoelectric sensors, and other typically sensitive materials.  That means that any dirt, build-up, or grime can be removed quickly and thoroughly, as part of the blasting process – saving a business the added time and effort of trying to cleanse electrical elements by hand or taking apart heavy machinery.

Dry Ice Blasting is Environmentally Friendly

Unlike other industrial cleaning solutions, dry ice blasting leaves no carbon footprint.  The process does not produce carbon dioxide, or add carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, thanks to being obtained from reclaimed carbon dioxide.  Since the dry ice pellets vaporize during the cleaning process, all that’s left behind is the removed dirt and grime.  Unlike sandblasting or soda blasting, dry ice blasting produces no secondary waste that needs to be properly handled and disposed of following the cleanup.

Our mobile fleet is ready to tackle the toughest jobs in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, London, Burlington, Windsor, Barrie, and Northern Ontario. Contact us today to see how we can help with mould or fire restoration needs.

Wickens Dry Ice Blasting tackles the toughest jobs across Ontario, offering fire restoration, mould remediation, asbestos abatement, lead paint abatement, and more. Contact us today for a consultation or emergency service!

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