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Derustit Holland B.V.
It Dok 1
8447 GL Heerenveen,
The Netherlands.
Tel: +31 (0)513 610215
Fax: +31 (0)513 620225
Email: info@derustit.nl
K.V.K. nr: 01057316

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History of IceBlast

On January 11, 1955 US patent number 2,699,403 entitled “Means and Methods for Cleaning and Polishing Automobiles” was issued to Emmett J. Courts for an invention comprising “…bombarding a finished surface area with virtually discrete particles of ice flakes….”. The blast media were ice particles made from freezing water. No physical device was evident from this invention and the concept remained as such.
In 1983, Calvin Fong et al of the Lockheed Corporation patented a “Blasting Machine Utilizing Sublimable Particles”. The blast media were pelletized dry ice and hence the process became known as dry ice or CO2 blast. Commercialization of this invention was slow due to the high cost of dry ice and other issues related to safety and reliability.

Interest in ice blast renewed in the late 80’s as evidenced by numerous patents filed on the subject. The technology was based on adding cryogenic features in a natural progression from sand blasting. Without proper understanding of the static and dynamic property of ice particles, such implementation invariably led to ice particle agglomeration and subsequent ice blockages.

The Department of National Defense in Canada contracted Dr. Sam Visaisouk to determine the feasibility of ice blasting for cleaning in confined spaces such as inside ships. The prospect of a dustless abrasive blasting process was very appealing on environmental and worker safety compliance grounds. This effort led to the first operating commercial ice blast machine in 1992. These ice blast machines had complex operating system controls and required frequent defrosting as very cold air was used for fluidizing and transporting ice particles from source to nozzle. At that time, any ice blockages were attributed to partial melting of ice particles, which would favor agglomeration. The use of very cold fluidizing air was deemed absolutely necessary. Periodic system defrosting was required as a result.

Different variation of the same design claiming improvements appeared in the patent literature. However, they were fundamentally the same: some mechanical intervention to “size” the ice particles and the use of cold air to fluidize them. Ice blast machines were still considered cryogenic systems and required lengthy cool down from a warm start.

During this period, other methods of ice blast were introduced elsewhere. Gary Settles of Penn State University patented a process in which a cryogenic fluid froze atomized water in a nozzle for blasting. A French version (briefly licensed by Schlick) utilized liquid nitrogen to freeze small water droplets to form ice particles for blasting. Both of these processes relied on cryogenic fluid at very low temperatures and could not be easily scaled up for robust industrial requirements.

In 1996 Sam Visaisouk took a drastic change in the method of producing and fluidizing ice particles that resulted in patent US5,913,711. He and Norm Fisher later produced a working model, patents US6,001,000 and US6,270,394. This breakthrough method remains the base of the state of the art ice blast systems to date.