Dry ice blasting, a relevant response to the challenges facing the food industry
Dry ice blasting is an innovative technique with a simple operating principle: dry ice, transformed into pellets from liquefied CO2, is blown onto the surfaces to be cleaned using compressed air.
The 5 strengths of cryogenics
- Efficiency: this is the main advantage of this technique, which offers an optimum solution in environments where water cannot be used.
- Versatility : cryogenics can handle a wide variety of surfaces, from the toughest to the most delicate.
- Fast : after application, dry ice sublimates and leaves no residue. Simply collect the loosened dirt, reduced to fine particles.
- Cost-efficiency: downtime for cleaned equipment is considerably reduced, optimizing production.
- Environmental protection: dry ice blasting uses no water or chemicals, and generates no pollution. It therefore reduces water consumption.
Onet masters the entire cryogenic chain
As Philippe Cuenot, Onet's National Food Hygiene Expert, explains:
We have machines that allow very fine adjustment. We can perform both aggressive stripping and delicate cleaning. This enables us, for example, to remove the paper label from a plastic crate without damaging the substrate.
Onet also manufactures dry ice, notably at its Clermont-Ferrand site. Our agents can therefore use our own dry ice, which is an added advantage in terms of know-how and availability.
What's more, cryogenics has no impact on our carbon footprint, as the CO2 we use is recycled.
A process adapted to "wet" production lines
Even in industries where the production line cleaning process is mainly "wet" (water washing and foaming), cryogenics has its place as a complementary solution.
Indeed, some critical equipment cannot be cleaned with water due to its sensitivity, even though it may represent a potential point of direct bacteriological contamination. This is particularly true of packaging machines (bagging, thermoforming and sealing machines), as well as sensitive mechanical components such as the inside of motor housings or drive chains and belts. Such equipment, which we encounter very frequently at our customers' sites, requires an alternative cleaning solution to guarantee optimum hygiene.
A wide range of sectors
We work with food industry players in a wide range of sectors.
In a chocolate factory, staff had to take 2 hours off production time every day to clean the lines. So we set up a cryogenic cleaning system. Thanks to this solution, it is possible to cryogenically clean one line and leave the others running. This has saved the staff 2 hours of daily production time.
The same type of problem can be found in cookie factories. An oven conveyor can be between 100 and 300 meters long. By installing an automated cryogenic system on the conveyor, the conveyor can be cleaned without being dismantled, and the customer saves a week's production.
In the cheese production sector, the use of dry ice blasting for cutting belt grids also saves a great deal of time. Cleaning is possible during production, and there is no drying time: the production line is available immediately. With water-based cleaning, a drying time of 2 or 3 hours would be necessary.
Another cryogenic application tested by our customers is the cleaning of negative-pressure cold rooms. Cryogenics is limited to a specific area: the entrance to the cold room. The very low temperatures (-18° to -20°) make cleaning with water impossible.
Dry ice blasting combines performance, safety and respect for the environment. It is particularly well-suited to food industry cleaning. For customers unable to invest in a dedicated solution, we offer an investment package for food industry cleaning equipment.
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