Cold Jet is the global leader in dry ice technology, headquartered in Loveland, Ohio, with international operations in Europe, Asia, Canada and Mexico. Cold Jet’s mission is to generate value to customers by helping them solve their cleaning, surface preparation, parts finishing, and dry ice manufacturing challenges. Cold Jet accomplishes this by providing products and services that reduce operating costs, improve product quality, and increase productivity.
Cold Jet invented modern dry ice technology and the sole focus for 30+ years has been on developing and innovating the most technologically advanced dry ice solutions available. Throughout the history, Cold Jet has set the standard for quality, performance, and reliability in the field and is committed to advancing dry ice technology every day. Cold Jet holds the original patent for modern dry ice blasting equipment – US Patent 4,617,064 (1986) – and holds more than 100 patents worldwide. To fulfil the mission of creating value and protecting the environment, Cold Jet’s equipment utilizes or produces media that is non-toxic, non-conductive, non-abrasive, and does not produce hazardous secondary waste.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
COLD JET: Cold Jet has two distinct lines of business centered around the use of dry ice. The company produces environmentally friendly cleaning, surface preparation, and parts finishing systems for global manufacturing industries. These systems utilize particles of dry ice as a blasting medium. Secondly, Cold Jet produces systems for the production, dosing, and packaging of dry ice. These systems enable the consistent production of a controlled range of dry ice products for food transportation, cold chain management and dry ice cleaning. Customers are using this technology-based solution to replace outdated processes that are inefficient and harmful to the environment and the operator’s health and safety.
Cold Jet dry ice (CO2) cleaning is an efficient and cost-effective way for industries to maximize production capability and quality. Dry ice cleaning uses recycled CO2 in the form of solid dry ice particles that are transported by high-velocity airflow to remove contaminants from surfaces. When accelerated at supersonic speeds through high velocity nozzles, dry ice creates a thermodynamic shock on the surface to lift the contaminant off the underlying substrate. The combination of the kinetic energy and thermal shock breaks the bond between the residue and the surface. The dry ice particles sublimate (transform from a solid to a gas) upon impact, leaving no other cleaning by-product behind and eliminating the added cost and inconvenience of secondary waste treatment and disposal.
A dry and therefore non-conductive process, dry ice cleaning is a fast cleaning method that can be used to clean equipment while it is hot and on-line, thereby significantly reducing machine downtime. In addition, equipment life is prolonged because dry ice is non-abrasive and leaves behind no additional trapped media. This process also eliminates possible damage during transport to cleaning areas or misalignment during reassembly.
Cleaning with dry ice promotes a high level of operator safety and a healthy work environment. It does not require the use of harsh chemicals and sometimes dangerous manual cleaning practices that are intrinsic to traditional cleaning methods. These traditional methods pose a greater risk for the worker and may also have a negative impact on the equipment and the environment.
Dry ice cleaning has many unique and superior benefits over traditional blasting media:
- It is non-abrasive, non-flammable, and non-conductive;
- It is environmentally responsible and contains no secondary contaminants such as solvents or grit media;
- It allow most items to be cleaned in place without time-consuming disassembly;
- It is used without damaging active electrical or mechanical parts or creating fire hazards;
- It removes production residue, release agents, contaminants, paints, oils and biofilms;
- It is as gentle as dusting smoke damage from books or as aggressive as removing weld slag from tooling;
- It is used for many general cleaning applications;
- It utilizes dry ice pellets made from recycled carbon dioxide that has been specifically approved by the FDA, EPA and USDA;
- Dry ice blasting is an effective solution for many applications within a broad and diverse range of industries.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
COLD JET: Cold Jet is an OEM of dry ice blasting equipment that offers a more effective alternative cleaning solution to methods such as sand, soda, and other abrasive blasting. Cold Jet’s dry ice blasting machines feature unparalleled technology and can be used in a variety of industries and applications.
The second range of products are Cold Jet’s dry ice manufacturing solutions and production equipment which have been engineered to extrude the highest density dry ice available that can be used for cleaning or for transport and cooling. With onsite dry ice manufacturing, the end user can produce dry ice on demand and have more control in an environment of constant change. By better managing dry ice volumes, sublimation loss decreases, product quality increases, and cost containment improves drastically.
Benefits of onsite dry ice manufacturing:
- 24 hour a day, 7 day a week reliability;
- Fully automated, one-button operation;
- Best output to footprint ratio available;
- Open frame for quick maintenance;
- Made to UL, USDA, FDA, CE standards.
Cold Jet senses an increasing demand for automated system solutions for both online and offline cleaning in various industries, and for applications requiring repetitive dry ice cleaning. The market is changing and more companies are moving to integrated cleaning solutions with an on-site dry ice production system. Cold Jet offers both fully- and semi-automated solutions for continuous cleaning processes. Integrated dry ice blasting systems are cost effective solutions that provide superior cleaning performance and minimal space requirements. The systems enable uninterrupted operation. The COMBI 120H is Cold Jet’s fully automated system which combines dry ice pellet production, dry ice blasting, and robotic operation all in one system. High-density dry ice pellets are produced on demand and are always available on site and in the exact quantity required. The pelletizer unit automatically adapts the production of dry ice pellets to the dry ice consumption predefined on the blasting unit. The system can also be used to produce dry ice pellets for other applications. It is fitted with an extra pellet outlet so pellets can be produced directly into an external dry ice container.
E.E: What’s the news for 2021 about new products?
COLD JET: Cold Jet has reinvented dry ice technology with the Aero2® series, which is a new collection of the world’s most advanced dry ice blasters. The Aero2® series of machines is the highest performing and most efficient line of dry ice blasters ever. With a reimagined design that includes a straight through air system and redesigned feeding system, air pressure loss and dry ice waste are reduced to a minimum. This allows for a pulse-free and consistent blast stream while using less air and less dry ice.
The Aero2® machines are not only the most technologically advanced on the market, they’re also the easiest to use. With a 7” LCD color screen and digital controls, an operator can easily view and adjust blasting parameters and machine settings. The machine also offers programmable and password protected application recipes to ensure the user is blasting with the most efficient settings for each individual application.
Additionally, all Aero2® machines are connected. The series introduces Industry 4.0 technologies to dry ice blasting for the first time. The machines are IoT-enabled via Cold Jet CONNECT™, which provides remote monitoring and diagnostics, giving greater insights into operations. The Aero2® series also provides various performance options. With two lines of machines, the PCS® and PLT®, it is possible to choose the best option for your unique application.
PCS models feature Cold Jet’s revolutionary Particle Control System™, which allows them to cut standard dry ice pellets into dry ice particles from 0.3mm up to 3mm and every size in between. The PCS offers the performance of 28 different machines in one – from aggressive cleaning applications to the most delicate cleaning applications. No machine on the market is capable of this type of precision and application versatility. PLT models are designed to be more effective at higher air pressure levels and are optimized for applications that require more power. PLT machines utilize standard pellets for a more aggressive clean.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
COLD JET: The dry ice machine industry is concentrated. There are a variety of manufacturers ranging from large multinational corporations to small privately owned companies competing in this industry. The top five producers account for about 70% of market share. The premium machine manufacturers are mainly concentrated in Europe and USA and generally have higher prices. Some manufacturers in Asia are trying to occupy the market by offering lower cost machines.
Industry leaders, like Cold Jet, have significantly more offices and distributors around the world. Other manufacturers typically only have the sales offices in their headquarters. The sales of dry ice machines increased from 4709 units in 2011 to 7078 units in 2016, with an average growth rate of more than 8%. Geographically, Europe was the largest market in the world, which saw about 39% of the global consumption volume in 2015. The US was a close second, accounting for about 33% of the global total. Dry ice machines can be divided into dry ice production equipment and dry ice cleaning machines, which have a lower cost and are more popular than dry ice production equipment. Dry ice cleaning machines made up around 80% of the production market share. Cold Jet is the largest manufacturer in the world, relying on their superior machines, world class customer support, and strong distribution channel.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
COLD JET: In the coming years, the technology breakthrough for dry ice production machines in North America and Europe is expected to drive the market for more advanced dry ice production machines. Increased research and development expenditures, more-intense competition, new product launches, retrofitting and renovating old technology, and increasing adoption of dry ice production machines in Asia-Pacific countries will drive market growth. The potential market for dry ice production machines are countries with active industrial manufacturing activities, especially in China, India, and Southeast Asia. Competition in the budget products market is fierce and we recommend new entrants to focus more on the premium products market while improving with manufacturing technology. With emerging economies growing quickly, a strategy has been adopted by most leading vendors in the dry ice production machine market to approach these areas. An analysis of the dry ice production machine market predicts that Europe will account for the highest sales in 2025, with nearly 35% of global sales, while developing countries show the highest potential growth rates. Vendors recognize the importance of this region, and are working towards penetrating this market by strengthening their sales and distribution networks.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
COLD JET: The most innovative products on the dry ice market is the Aero2® Series with the PCS® 60 and PLT® 60 models.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2021?
COLD JET: Cold Jet expects to see continued growth in the industries they already serve while researching the feasibility of entering new and emerging markets requiring dry ice blasting and dry ice production systems. There is also an anticipated increase in the adoption of IoT-enabled devices as the cost of entry continues to drop. These connected devices will give users access to various operational data dashboards to easily make efficiency boosting and cost saving decisions. Our IoT-enabled machines will also provide Cold Jet engineers valuable insights regarding the use of our products to continually improve the operator’s experience. Lastly, this connection will enable Cold Jet technicians to support operators remotely in an effort to further reduce our carbon footprint.