You might have heard that sandblasting is very useful for cleaning, removing rust, preparing surfaces for painting or repairs, and much more. You might have even used sandblasting successfully in the past, and you might plan to use it on all similar projects that you might have coming up soon. However, you may want to educate yourself on some of your other options, such as dry ice blasting. Dry ice blasting is very similar to sandblasting but is done with dry ice instead of silica sand. You might want to try dry ice blasting instead of sandblasting for your next project if any or all of the following things are true.

You Don't Already Have a Sandblasting Machine

If you already have a sandblasting machine, then you might not be particularly interested in purchasing additional equipment that can be used for a similar job. Unfortunately, you probably won't have much success if you use dry ice in your sandblasting machine. If you don't already have a machine and are trying to decide which one you should purchase or rent, you may want to consider buying or renting a dry ice blasting machine instead of a sandblasting machine.

You're Worried About Damage from Abrasive Material

One downside of sandblasting—despite its many benefits—is the fact that silica sand and many other types of media that are used in sandblasting machines are often quite abrasive. Depending on the item that you are sandblasting, you may have to worry about its finish being damaged or destroyed because of this abrasion. Luckily, dry ice isn't abrasive at all, so it's a very good choice if you have been worried about using abrasive material for some reason or another.

You Want Clean-Up to Be Pretty Easy

As you can probably imagine—or as you might know from experience—sandblasting can be a pretty messy job. After all, you have to clean up all of the silica sand after the job is done. Since dry ice is destroyed when it's used, then you don't have to worry about all of this clean-up work when you use dry ice blasting instead of sandblasting.

You're Looking for a Safer and More Environmentally Friendly Option

Sand that is used during sandblasting can become hazardous when it's used to remove certain materials. However, this is not the case with dry ice, and dry ice is typically considered to be an environmentally friendly and safe material. 

For more information, contact a local company that offers dry ice blasting services.