The plastic roto mold industry uses mold release to facilitate the removal of parts from their molds. Over time the mold release buildup becomes a problem and needs to be removed.
Until recent years, the cleaning of the roto mold was always quite labor intense. The mold had to be pulled out of production and brought to an area where it could be conveniently cleaned. If there were places on the mold that were polished, the cleaning process itself often removed the polished surface. It would then have to be re polished.
Conventional roto mold cleaning methods, abrasive blasting, Scotch Brite pads with cleaning solvent etc. remove metal from the mold, which shortens the useful life. These mechanical cleaning methods have secondary waste streams that they leave behind, cleaning solvent, abrasive pads, rags, sand, soda, glass bead etc.
Roto mold cleaning by dry ice blasting offered by Glacier Blast Inc. is an alternative that makes removing the mold from the production area unnecessary. Dry ice blasting is the use of solid CO2 (carbon dioxide) pellets accelerated by compressed air to clean the mold release from the mold.
Dry ice blasting is not abrasive. This process completely eliminates the need to re polish. Polished surfaces stay polished because the process removes no metal, this helps extend the useful life of the mold.
There is no secondary waste to deal with after the cleaning job is done. The dry ice pellets simply disappear on impact.
Another topic of interest for the roto mold industry might be Concrete Cleaning By Dry Ice Blasting.