When the partial sheet of consumer sandpaper you’re using for your little weekend project around the house gets fouled (“loaded”), you just throw it away and grab a new sheet. With industrial production sanding in a woodworking plant or auto body shop, you don’t have that luxury because time is money. Large industrial sanding belts a foot (or more) wide and several feet long are expensive. Time spent changing belts and adjusting the new belt is not producing finished product.
Dry ice blasting can be used to clean the sanding belts in place. Workers don’t have to wait for the sander to cool down to start cleaning the belt; in fact, the belt can be cleaned while the sander is running. The “loading” on the sandpaper, cleaned off by the dry ice blasting, is removed by the dust removal system that handles the sanding dust. The solid CO2 pellets sublimate into a gas, leaving no residue. Gum from sanding resinous woods like pine is easily cleaned from the sanding belt with dry ice blasting.
Cryogenic sandpaper cleaning works in three ways: first, the force of the dry ice pellets loosens the “loading”; then the thermal shock of the sudden temperature drop separates the “loading” from the sandpaper, and the temperature drop also hardens gums “loading” like pine resin for fast and clean removal.
Continental Carbonic Products can help you increase productivity with dry ice blasting. Please contact us at one of these dry ice locations.
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