Dry ice blasting machines are cleaning and blasting devices that use dry ice pellets (solid CO₂) as an abrasive. The pellets vaporise on impact without leaving any residue (sublimation), meaning that the blasting agent does not need to be disposed of and the surface being blasted is not damaged.
Variants include small single-nozzle units for workshop use, large industrial blasters with high blasting agent throughput, units with pellet generators for on-site production, and automated robot-assisted blasting systems for batch cleaning.
Common manufacturers include Cold Jet, ASCO Carbon Dioxide, Polar Tech, IceTech, CryoSnow, Kärcher (Industrial), White Lion and Aquila Triventek.
Dry ice blasting equipment is used for cleaning printing presses (e.g. Heidelberg printing units), in food production (HACCP-compliant), for cleaning moulds in the plastics industry, for post-fire restoration, in the restoration of historic buildings, and for cleaning engines and electronics.