Pretoria- and Durban-based dry ice blast cleaning services provider Dry Ice International launched a fully pneumatic blast cleaning machine that uses dry ice pellets, in September.
Dry Ice International owner Deon Roux tells Mining Weekly that the company has been executing blast cleaning in the mining, power and engineering sectors since its establishment in 1994.
“Our product is fully pneumatic, all its components have been locally sourced and it has been designed, developed and manufactured by Dry Ice International. The product has been subjected to rigorous testing procedures and several refining processes.”
Roux explains that, although this machine is not a new concept, it is a first for South Africa and has been designed with specific requirements and local conditions in mind. “The standard dry ice blasting machine is powered by electricity, but this one, in particular, is powered by compressed air, as electricity is not always available 1 000 m below the surface in the local mining industry,” he explains.
Roux mentions that the blasting machine has a relatively low cost of ownership, advising clients to acquire the machine and conduct routine cleaning sessions by themselves. The blast cleaning side of Dry Ice International comprises six cleaning teams.
“Recently, a mining client had a problem with its power generator and called us in. Four hours after starting the cleaning, the stator and rotor were back in operation. The generator is worth about R30-million and our quick turnaround time saved the mining company valuable time and money,” he says.
The company also did an emergency cleaning job in Centurion, Gauteng, recently, after a cable theft incident caused an 11 kV electrical flash. “The cleaning job, which would usually have taken five days to complete manually, was completed in only 12 hours,” he concludes.