Maintenance cleaning of automated production equipment has in the past often been neglected as the cost of lost production time for effective cleaning has not been sanctioned leaving production staff to use a quick but often ineffective cleaning regime.
When dry ice first looked to be a possible solution to this problem it was initially ruled out as it was much more expensive than the current, but nevertheless ineffective, cleaning process. Today, it is more common to balance the cost of dry ice cleaning directly against the value of the production time saved and because the process is quicker and better than conventional cleaning the additional expenditure is more than repaid by higher productivity, better product cleanliness, and less downtime for stoppages created by product build up.
Dry ice is used extensively in all critical production process where residue product build up affects the quality of the product. In the robotic world of automotive production weld slag build up will stick to jigs and prevent the parts seating accurately. In time this will put the finished part out of tolerance. Because dry ice blasting is a non abrasive process it will quickly remove the build up without the overspray damaging any sensitive parts of the robotics.
Similar, but less dramatic effects, occur in fast moving food and packaging lines where process build up, if not removed, will dislodge and either spoil the product or jam the process. In such instances dry ice can be used with the process still running to remove the build up and prevent disruption to the process and quality issues. It is safe to use dry ice in a live scenario as the blast stream contains no solid material that can cause damage to fast moving machine parts.