Dry ice cleaning propels rice-sized CO2 pellets at high speed through compressed air. The combination of kinetic impact, thermal shock and sublimation loosens contaminants, and the ice turns directly into gas — no water, no chemicals, no secondary waste to dispose of.
Why It Suits Electronics Manufacturing
Wet washing is ideal for boards in baskets, but many cleaning jobs in an SMT plant involve objects that must not get wet or cannot fit a washer: wave-solder pallets and selective-solder carriers with accumulated flux, reflow oven parts, conveyor chains, dispensing equipment, and even powered equipment that cannot be disconnected for days. Dry ice blasting cleans them in place, often without disassembly, because there is no moisture to damage electronics.
The Three Mechanisms
First, kinetic energy: pellets accelerated to supersonic speed abrade the soil layer. Second, thermal shock: the -78.5 °C pellets cool the contaminant abruptly, cracking its bond with the substrate — especially effective on brittle flux and baked-on residues. Third, sublimation: on impact the pellet vaporizes and expands roughly 800 times in volume, lifting the loosened soil off the surface. The contaminant falls as dry dust that is removed by extraction or wiping.
Typical Applications
Flux removal from solder pallets and carriers (extending their life significantly), cleaning of reflow oven internals and catalytic grids, mold and tooling maintenance in nearby plastic or die-cast operations, and restoration of misprinted or rework boards in low volume. It is also the method of choice for fire-and-soot restoration of production equipment.
Equipment Requirements
A dry ice blaster needs compressed air at 3–10 bar (typically 0.5–4 m³/min depending on nozzle) and a pellet supply. Single-phase 220 V power covers most machines. We manufacture dry ice cleaning machines for electronics and industrial use — ask for a recommendation based on your application and air supply.