Gently blasting graffiti away
December 1st 2008 KÄRCHER's Ice Blaster is a portable, non-aggressive, cleaning method that does not
cause damage to the substrate or the environment
KÄRCHER's IB 15/80 Ice Blaster is designed
to give safe, mess-free graffiti removal.The
portable system is a non-aggressive,
thorough method of cleaning surfaces, tools,
moulds and machines without causing damage
to the substrate or the environment.The
machine can be used in indoor and outdoor
areas and does not require chemicals.
KÄRCHER says ice blasting is particularly
suitable for graffiti removal and other urban
cleaning tasks as it will not damage brickwork or
paving.
The system uses dry ice pellets kept at -79°C,
injected into a jet of compressed air, accelerated
to speeds in excess of 150m/s and then fired at
the surface to be cleaned.The abrupt cooling of
the surface causes a thermal shock and
produces fine cracks in the top layer (in this case
spray paint).The dry ice pellets penetrate these
cracks and sublimate instantly (turn into a gas
without becoming a liquid) lifting the contaminant from the surface,
and return to the atmosphere as CO2 gas leaving only the
contaminant behind.As cleaning with dry ice is performed without
chemicals or detergents, and leaves no
wastewater, it is environmentally friendly and
can be used in areas where cleaning with water
is prohibited or inconvenient. Unlike sand
blasting, ice blasting keeps surface abrasion to a
minimum, and there is only the contaminant to
collect after cleaning has been completed.
The IB 15/80 is stainless steel, and has a
removable side panel for easy maintenance.Two
large pneumatic tyres and two small casters
give excellent mobility. Features include a
blasting pressure gauge, operating hour meter,
variable pressure and ice consumption to suit a
range of applications, and an emergency stop
switch.There is an air/ice selector on the trigger
gun to allow a choice of air and ice, or air only,
for removing any debris from the area being
blasted.
The unit as standard comes with a hose,
trigger gun and nozzle case.A range of
additional nozzles are available to suit specialist applications. Please
contact the company for
information. More articles from Karcher (UK) Ltd: | 
