• Reduce cleaning time up to 80%

As a result of dry ice blasting, Preform mold manufacturers have been able to reduce their production downtime by as much as 80%.Dry ice blast systems are able to clean mold surfaces while the mold is still at curing temperature in the press.

The importance of clean mold cavities is a major concern in maintaining today's high quality standards. The build-up of unwanted surface residues from either the product mix itself, mold releases or the labeling process can create various problems, ranging from product release ("knock out") to inferior product quality and possible damage to tools from over-packing and straining. In addition to maintaining the cleanliness of the molds, the dry ice blasting process also reduces and in many cases eliminates the need to disassemble the molds from the press as is done for cleaning traditionally.

Dry ice blasting removes the waxy, paraffin build-up that can lead to blemishes (orange peel effect) on the bottles while the molds are hot and on-line.

The manufacturing of a polyurethane foam product used in sound dampening for autos and vans leaves the manufacturer with molds coated with an isocyanate/wax mold release. Mold release build-up eventually causes "knock out" problems, and, in extreme cases, the wax release agent becomes encased in the polyurethane foam product, making the product unusable.

With dry ice blasting, molds are cleaned in only 15 to 20 minutes and the cavities are more thoroughly cleaned = 20 times as many molds can be cleaned with dry ice blasting versus conventional methods. Production up time is increased by 100 to 120 hours and maintenance crews are now free to attend to other duties.

Dry ice blasting can clean entire blow and injection mold cavities completely and effectively. Many leading blow molding bottle manufacturers have discovered that dry ice blasting systems cut their daily mold cleaning time by about 80% simply by cleaning molds hot and in place. Today, even the back 1/3 of the blow-mold surface and the entire deep-cavity injection molds used to make test-tube shaped slugs are cleaned by dry ice blasting whereas it used to have to be cleaned by hand.