How Dry Ice Blasting is used in the car manufacturing industry

Optimum have carried out many blast cleaning assignments in lots of varied industry sectors. The main sector we often get linked to, either directly or indirectly, is the car manufacturing sector.

The reason i say indirectly is because it amazes us how many companies actually form part of the massive supply chain that emits from the automotive sector.

Yesterday, Optimum cleaned a centrless grinding lathe for a small engineering firm, tucked away in the backstreets of Birmingham. This company soley exists by making thousands upon thousands of metal disks for JLR, that fix (somewhere)into the Range Rover vehicle.

With JLR now at maximum production, it was vital to this small company that the centreless grinding lathe was not ‘offline’ for cleaning maintenance for more than half a day. Traditional cleaning methods would mean taking the machine offline for 3-4 days and the company were under a lot of pressure by JLR for this not to happen.

This is where Optimum came in. After initial contact i surveyed the machine on the same day and the next day a crew was sent out to start the blast. Three hours later and the machine was clean, and more importantly, back online.

This is just one example of how reducing the downtime of machinery cleaning is so vital for small companies. Production being halted for 3-4 days carried a very real scenario of ‘business going elsewhere’, something no company can afford in the current economic climate.

Most car manufacturing in the UK today involves assembly only. The spine of production relies upon the network of automotive engineering companies like the one described above. Reducing cleaning downtime is a vital cog in the wheel and this is where we believe Optimum Dry Ice Blasting can help.

By Ian Reynolds