The many intricate parts of a modern large-scale printing press can be a nightmare to keep clean. The countless hours spent printing causes these complex pieces to accumulate ink, paper pulp and debris creating printing issues. Alignment problems, blurry and distorted prints and high scrap rates just to name a few.

A crucial part of a modern printing press is called a “gripper”. Its main function is, you guessed it, to “grip” the sheet or sheets of paper and pull it through the press. This process happens very quickly with many repetitions per minute. If the gripper is dirty the press is going to slow down resulting in decreased productivity and poor-quality prints. In other words, it will cost the printing company time and money.

The best way to keep the grippers (and other parts clean) is to use Dry Ice Blasting. At Hughes Environmental we clean printing presses with no secondary waste. The presses do not have to be disassembled and no harsh chemicals or solvents are utilized only CO2. We can clean in 1/3 of the time of traditional chemical methods and it’s 100% environmentally safe.

Dry ice blast cleaning saves time, money and the planet because it doesn’t contribute any secondary waste to the environment. Dry ice sublimates on contact and returns to a vaporous gas, therefore there are no extra elements introduced to the press room environment that might add to the clean-up process.