Dry ice sandblasting for chassis and parts

[Findm-Keepm]

Dry ice blasting was used at the NADEP (aviation Depot) at NAS Norfolk to strip conformal coating off of circuit boards and cable assemblies in for rework. It stripped the varnish-like coating off of the boards, but left resistor color codes intact. The key is the constant movement of the gun (nicknamed "the torch") and the proximity of the gun to the object being blasted. The dry ice beads were tiny, and were gone within milliseconds after doing their thing. The shields protecting the guy operating the unit were polycarbonate, and I don't recall them being abraded much either. Really neat stuff - I've also seen it used to clean ABS plastic fan shrouds of grease and dirt.

In the late 80's/early 90's, environmentally safe solutions were the sought after technology, for sure. In 1991, a janitor in our building on base developed a novel hazmat disposal system, got a bonus from Uncle Sam, and gave up the patent rights as well. IIRC, the bonus was nearly $40K, about 1/10th of the dollar savings actually realized by the government.

Cheers,