Containment for Dry Ice Blasting

IAQM frequently builds custom containment for our dry ice blasting customers. It is always important for all parties involved to know the material & chemical make of the coverage being displaced.

We build containments for various reasons

1. This is to protect the health of all working and or exposed to the blasting area. Blasting displaces the debris, film, build up, resin, and whatever else is on top of the substrate to be cleaned. Displaced means it is blasted with dry ice. It goes somewhere. First into the air, then settles dependent upon weight and density after blasted. 
2. The containment helps protect those near the blasting area from being hit with particles,, pieces, and chunks. Think of the containment as a large, coop of safety goggles for all on the exterior. We wear safety goggles and face shiels, so we know the rest of the work environment is to be protected as well. 
3. As part of many containments, we add custom negative air and filtering. This traps and filters the particl count of the material removed. In doing so, it reduces the settlement of the lighter, smaller debris removed. It is one more step of cleaning up while the cleaning from dry ice blasting occurs. This reduces what is being put into the air and what will affect the respiratory systems of all exposed to the working area. This goes back to the importance of both IAQM and the staff of the worksite to know the exact chemical / material make up of what is to be removed from the substrate when blasting.
4. This is a must when working in confined spaces. The blasting puts CO2 into the space, discpacing the oxygen level. We force air into the space. At the same time, we create a negative air system to pull out blasted particle count along with the CO2.

IAQM was founded 15 years ago, then specializing in remediation. With many years of experience as well as working to stay ahead of improvements in the industry, we have studied the art of building containment. It made perfect sense to transition this knowledge and experience over to our dry ice blasting division. This protects our customers and employees alike. 

For your consultation and scheduling call our office at (972) 564-0477 or Willie Grubaugh directly at (214) 244-3871.

For more information, go to our website

www.iaqm.com/industrial-cleaning/

Dry Ice Blasting in Production Facilities

In production and manufacturing, as with any environment, there is more than one way to skin a cat. There's safe, dangerous, complicated, simple, expensive, cost effective, hard, easy, "...the way we've always done it", and innovative. It should be quick to recognize the 180° variances which exist between each.

Let's look at these from a high level. Dangerous can come from many directions. There are hazzards of using chemical agents. You risk the substrate being cleaned. You risk employees who are trained and versed in their everyday work, but not in the use of chemicals, application of, necessary safety gear & containment, proper ventilation, and the list just goes on. I would have the use of chemicals fall under dangerous, complicated, expensive  (adds extensive down time), hard, and my favorite,  "the way we've always done it."

Tailing chemical usage is the addition of manual labor. The cleaning may be required in confined spaces. It will include small corners, angles, and reaching into the machinery. That alone is an elevated and unnecessary risk to good employees.  This requires lock out tag out.

Blasting comes with a variety of media used; glass, sand, soda, walnut shell, other materials, and dry ice. Every one creates a secondary waste. Many are too abrasive for the molds and machinery to be cleaned. Many are toxic and can cause life long health issues when inhaled. Dry ice blasting does not create a secondary waste, nor require additional clean up after the cleaning. You only sweep or vacuum the displaced debris. This can be done in process in some instances with negative air, containment, and filtering.

OSHA is the mighty above all in production and manufacturing. OSHA can have an immediate impact from what was a cheap, quick fix to expensive in a matter of minutes. Thereafter comes the investigation and additional shut down, until the investigation is complete.

Safe, easy, cost efficient, simple, and innovative only describe dry ice blasting.

It is cost effective in a multitude of ways. First, dry ice blasting only requires minimal tear down. Blasting is effective with line if site. If we can see it, we can clean it. Dry ice blasting over manual labor reduces risk, less OSHA regulatory language, eliminates risk to your employees by taking them out of the work area, is EPA approved cleaning, reducing down time and returning the affected area to production sooner. Dry ice blasting restores your quality output after deterioration and build up begin to overflow onto your product.

Here are images of just a few different applications and uses with dry ice blasting

https://goo.gl/photos/Fy8UoWMmXDaLysbr7

Learn more about IAQM dry ice blasting at www.iaqm.com/industrial-cleaning/

Call IAQM to schedule your job evaluation and consultation. (972) 564 - 0477

IT IS COLD OUT THERE AND NOT ENOUGH KNOW IT

It doesn't seem all that long ago I was fired from my career of almost 9 years. I had given dedicated, company colors service day in and day out. I had sacrificed time with family, traveled, long hours, and all the other wording that typically goes along.

In my search for my own business, I tried a multitude of ideas along with a wealth of research, and talking with franchise recruiters. Nothing fit or fulfilled my internal needs or peaked my interest.

Along the way in this journey, a partnership opportunity arose through a couple my wife and I  have been friends with for better than 10 years. I can't ever remember discussing work with either of them. I didn't know what their company name was or what their offering was. When they heard I had a job change, Don and Katie presented me with a few different ideas on how to partner with them and expand a new service offering to their existing organization, IAQM. 

I went home and reviewed these ideas with Amy. I started doing my research on each service. I went all the traditional routes of Google first, YouTube, then ratings, reviews, demand, competition, risks, concerns, rewards. Over and over after reviewing a product or service, I continually came back to looking at dry ice blasting. I was fascinated and had not ever seen or heard of this. 

I am coming up on a year in December with my adventure into dry ice blasting. We bought our first piece of equipment in January. We did our fist mold remediation job immediately following the equipment purchase. It went horrible. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. We had down time, delays, it was not going at all as fast as advertised. Dry ice was turning into water blocks of ice clogging up the line and building up in the unit hopper. We finally finished the job. It took a few hours longer than if we had completed the job manually, with previous methods.

Hard headed, bound, and determined I took on another mold job. Same problems, and some new ones. Still we did not complete the job and save any time or man hours as advertised. It did not take as long as the previous job, but we were not impressing anyone or blowing the doors off. No pun intended. 

At it again with another job. I shaved off a little time, the problems I did have, I was able to trouble shoot a little faster. Some of the previous issues I had learned to prevent through research, YouTube, and calling other ice blasters across the country. 

DUH! All my previous careers, I built myself up by grabbing onto various mentors here and there. One for business. Another for career. One for personal growth, Spiritual, attitude, a marriage. I needed a blasting mentor who I was not a threat to and could call on any time. I called a couple and posed the mentoring to them. Everyone responded with, "Call me anytime. I went through all the same things. Good luck Willie. It will get better. Don't quit." 

Today, I am 11 months into blasting. I can beat any traditional, manual labor methods. We don't deal with the down times. I can see and get ahead of those issues, and or all out avoid them together. I still call on my mentors before, during, and after jobs. 

I have seen so many applications for dry ice blasting. We have cleaned inkers, brass fitting equipment, removed grease, oil, and grime build which was compromising the quality output and production of machinery. We have done mold remediation drastically reducing the traditional times and allowing home owners to return to normal living back at home sooner. We have finished a fire restoration and soot removal job in days compared the weeks the job was scheduled to take. We removed spray foam insulation from a home after a lightening strike in under 14 days. The job was forecast at 30 days prior to the introduction of dry ice blasting. We have cleaned and decontaminated equine transports for top performance horse owners to improve the living,transport conditions, and give these owners an edge over their competition. 

I am proud to say we have not done a job to date without a raving, written testimonial to follow to date. Clients have thanked us for getting them back into their homes ahead of expected days living elsewhere. Production and maintenance managers can't believe how much production time was gained compared to their previous cleaning methods. Production equals dollars. Downed or quality compromised machinery only costs money. Maintenance, Quality Assurance, and Plant managers all rave over having the product quality output restored. 

Most recently, I had a safety manager for a steel facility thank me. She said before, people had to enter into the production equipment space. OSHA was not a fan of this she stated. 

We were able to effectively blast needing only line of sight, which we had. Our technicians did not have to go down into their equipment; a chemical, resin, fume-filled, adhesive, poor air quality, hot environment. 

We continue work to expand this division of IAQM and get the word out. We have added equipment and expanded our bandwidth. We have multiple technicians now thoroughly trained to safely, efficiently, and effectively operate our dry ice blasting equipment. 

For more information about our dry ice blasting and a short demonstration video, click on the link below to go directly to our dry ice blasting page on our site.

IAQM Dry Ice Blasting

To have your questions answered regarding your project, schedule a consult, or project, call (972) 564-0477.

Additional products and services are available at http://www.iaqm.com/