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Dry Ice Blasting – Save Money, Reduce Waste and Increase Efficiency

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A project manager approached Red-D-Arc with an interesting challenge. Their power plant stack had a failing paint system which needed to be prepped for repainting in order to prevent further corrosion. They needed a method of prepping the surface of the 60 foot tall stack which could be performed without the use of scaffolding and would not produce any residual waste, since it might interfere with sensitive components.

Red-D-Arc’s Blasting Specialists suggested dry ice blasting (DIB). Dry ice blasting is an environmentally sustainable cleaning and surface preparation method. It uses dry ice pellets which requires absolutely no clean up, unlike traditional surface preparation methods like grit, HP water and chemicals. Not to mention, dry ice blasting is very fast, effective and inexpensive.

Red-D-Arc offers dry ice blasting systems for rent, sale and lease. The customer decided to rent a Cold Jet A80 HP package complete with nozzle extension, extra hoses, air compressor and dry ice. Replacement equipment was also kept on-site to reduce down time in case maintenance was required. Two members of the Red-D-Arc Blasterentals team provided a one day training program for their staff.

The customer performed intermittent blasting for about one month and were very pleased with the results. So much so that the Project Manager decided to completely remove the failing paint rather than just cleaning it as originally planned. They estimated this method saved them about $40,000 compared to other methods that they had considered.

Visit our Dry Ice Blasting webpage or contact one of our Dry Ice Blasting Specialists to learn more about the many advantages of dry ice blasting.

Taylor Stewart

Induction Heating Used for Removal of Hydroelectric Generator Rotor

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A customer involved in the rebuilding of a hydroelectric power generation station came to Red-D-Arc with a unique challenge: Use induction heat to help separate a massive rotor from its center shaft assembly. A traditional approach is to use a combination of open flame along with dry ice which would have taken several weeks to set up and also ran the risk of being ineffective due to the scale and complexity of the project.

Sil Nonis, an induction heating specialist at Red-D-Arc, suggested using 6 induction heating units activated in sequence to provide thermal growth in a uniform pattern; releasing the interference from the center shaft before lifting the rotor. The 6 Miller ProHeat 35 Induction Heating Systems powered two half circle assemblies, positioned at the bottom of the locking ring which was 5′ in diameter as well as two half circle assemblies positioned on a top locking ring which was 4′ in diameter. Massive rotor arms also had 4 pads attached to them, positioned in sequence.

Setup took approximately 2 days and removal of the rotor was completed in a single day. The same process will be used to reinstall the rotor after it has been rebuilt. Over the next few years two additional rotor assemblies will be removed, rebuilt and reinstalled using the same process.

Colin Brown

Red-D-Arc Works on The Wilshire Grand Centre

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Red-D-Arc provided ProHeat 35 induction heating systems during the construction of The Wilshire Grand Centre in Los Angeles. Large box columns of various sizes and weights needed to be pre-heated during the fabricating and erecting process. Red-D-Arc suggested the use of Pro Heat 35 induction heating systems and helped design fixtures for the heating cables so the box columns could be pre-heated safely and effectively. The 73 story, 1100 foot tower is planned to be completed in 2017 and will become the tallest tower in California!