The Sky’s Limit
Anyone who has been following our blogs recently will know that it can be difficult to break into certain industries. Nuclear Decommissioning has been particularly tricky but that is mainly down to health, safety and insurance requirements.
The food industry on the other hand openly embraces dry ice blasting and maintains its No.1 ranking as our main client base.
Aerospace definitely falls into the nuclear bracket. We have run many successful trials, carried out positive tests and completed (some) contracts. But on a whole this massive UK industry has yet to embrace dry ice blasting.
The fact that the rest of the aerospace world uses dry ice blasting extensively, and even NASA use the technology to ‘snow’ blast delicate apparatus, means that the process has certainly been passed as safe and compliant by the industry.
Aerospace Industry
Well, we are glad to say, the worm is now turning for Dry Ice Blasting within the UK Aerospace sector. Optimum have lobbied the industry extensively. We have attended trade shows, we have met the buyer and we have demonstrated how dry ice blasting can’t be outperformed when cleaning delicate parts. We have proved that we are safe over electrical items, we leave no particles in fuel line components and we can clean quickly. Extremely quickly.
Optimum have implemented an audit system, tailored to the Aerospace Industry, which comprehensively monitors, controls and logs every aspect of work carried out. There is a clear data trail from when the dry ice is produced, to atmospheric conditions at the workface, right through to when the blast machines are turned off.
One major company has been so impressed with the audit that they feel they can now put a case forward to the Aviation Authority that dry ice blast cleaning is without doubt ‘best practice’ for removal of wax lining from a post-production component.