Industrial cleaning in the Western Cape
Cleaning that leaves nothing behind.
Dry ice blasting lifts carbon, grease, resin, adhesive and product build-up off equipment where it stands. The blast medium is frozen CO₂ — it turns to gas on impact, so the only thing left to sweep up is the dirt that came off.
- 0 litres
- of water introduced to the equipment
- 0 kg
- of spent blast media to collect and dispose of
- −78 °C
- pellet temperature, which embrittles the contaminant
- In place
- no strip-down, no cool-down, no drying time
How it works
Three things happen at once when a pellet hits.
Dry ice blasting looks like sandblasting and behaves nothing like it. Understanding why matters, because it is the reason the process is safe on surfaces that grit and high-pressure water would destroy.
Acceleration
Food-grade CO₂ pellets are carried down a hose in a compressed air stream and fired at the surface. Kinetic energy does the first part of the work.
Thermal shock
At −78 °C the pellet chills the contaminant far faster than the substrate beneath it. The layer contracts, becomes brittle, and its bond to the surface fractures.
Sublimation
The pellet converts straight from solid to gas and expands sharply, lifting the loosened layer clear. No liquid, no residue, no second waste stream to handle.
Our offerings
We sell a clean, not a day rate.
An open-ended day rate is something you have to supervise. Every one of our products is quoted as a job: a defined scope, a price agreed before we arrive, and an asset handed back working. You are buying an outcome, and what makes it worth buying is everything the clean no longer consumes.
Compared to the alternatives
Four ways to clean the same asset.
These are the four methods most plants choose between on production equipment, and the rows below are what usually decides which one fits.
| Criterion | Dry ice blasting | Pressure washing | Sandblasting | Chemical cleaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary waste | None | Contaminated effluent | Spent abrasive grit | Chemical waste |
| Process water | None | High volume | Low | Rinse water required |
| Hazardous chemicals | None | Sometimes | None, but media handling applies | Yes, by design |
| Downtime | Cleaned in place | Shutdown plus dry-out | Shutdown plus teardown | Shutdown plus teardown |
| Live and electrical assets | Yes, no moisture introduced | No, water ingress | No, abrasion | No, corrosion risk |
| Substrate wear | Non-abrasive, tolerances held | Low | Erodes base material | Chemical attack risk |
Scroll the table sideways to see every method.
Characterised from the properties of each method, not from our own matched-asset testing.
Where it earns its keep
Three very different plants, three different reasons to use it.
Food and beverage, for QA and hygiene managers
Dry cleaning in a wet-risk environment
Hosing down a bakery, a poultry line or a cold room solves one problem and creates another: standing water in a food-contact zone is the condition Listeria and biofilm need. Dry ice blasting removes baked-on carbon, protein, fat and product residue without adding a drop of moisture and without leaving chemical residue that has to be rinsed and verified. Equipment can often be cleaned hot and in place, which pulls the whole hygiene window in.
- Baking ovens, trays and band ovens
- Proofers, spiral freezers and evaporator coils
- Conveyor belts, chains and drives
- Smokehouses and rotisserie units
- Mixers, hoppers and packaging machinery
- Ceilings, ducting and structural steel in production halls
Heavy industrial and refinery, for maintenance and turnaround planning
Clean without moisture ingress or grit contamination
Electrical panels, motors and switchgear can be cleaned without introducing water. Because the medium sublimates, nothing is left to migrate into bearings, hydraulics, seals or instrumentation, which makes it well suited to cleaning inside a live plant. The process is non-abrasive, so tolerances, coatings and identification markings survive it. Most of the value shows up in the shutdown schedule: less disassembly, no drying time, shorter critical path.
- Motors, switchgear and electrical panels
- Heat exchangers and cooling fins
- Carbon, coke and soot deposits
- Gearboxes, hydraulic power packs and pump skids
- Structural steel, walkways and cable trays
Automotive and aerospace, for tooling and production engineering
Tooling cleaned hot, in the press, without touching the surface finish
Pulling a mould to clean it costs hours and risks damage on refit. Dry ice blasting cleans release agent, resin, flash and carbon build-up with the tool still hot and still in the machine. It is non-abrasive, so vent sizes, texture and polish stay as the toolmaker set them — the reason it replaced bead blasting and manual scraping in most high-cycle mould shops.
The same properties apply to vehicles themselves. Engine bays, chassis and underbody can be stripped of grease and road grime without soaking wiring looms, connectors or ECUs, which is why restorers and specialist workshops use it where a pressure washer is not an option.
- Injection, compression and rubber moulds
- Weld fixtures, jigs and robot end effectors
- Paint booths, grating and overspray build-up
- Core boxes and die-cast tooling
- Precision tooling and inspection fixtures
- Composite lay-up tools
- Engine bays, chassis and underbody
- Classic and collector vehicle restoration
Downtime cost comparison
The machine isn't the cost. The stopped line is.
Cleaning is usually priced as a labour line. That hides the real number, which is what the plant loses while the asset is off. Put your own figures in and see what a year of it costs you. Then ask us to quote against it — nothing here is sent anywhere until you decide to send it.
Your annual picture
About
A cleaner way to clean, brought to your site.
Dry ice blasting cleans with frozen carbon dioxide rather than water, chemicals or grit. Small pellets of dry ice are fired at a surface on a stream of compressed air. The cold makes the dirt brittle, the impact knocks it loose, and the pellets turn straight into gas and vanish. There is nothing to rinse, nothing to dry, and nothing left to clear away except the dirt itself.
No water and no chemicals, at any stage of the process.
Lehlabule is a Cape Town company founded in 2025 and run by its founders, and we are fully mobile. We come to your premises and clean equipment where it stands, fitting in with your operations, so there is no transport to arrange and the clean happens right where the work does. That applies whether you need a full production line cleaned during a planned shutdown or a single piece of equipment brought back to condition.
We started the company to offer industry a way of cleaning that leaves less behind. Dry ice needs no water, no chemicals and no abrasive media, so there is no runoff to manage and nothing to dispose of afterwards, and because it is gentle on surfaces, equipment lasts longer. To us, that is what cleaning greener really means: less waste today, and more life from the machines you already own.
Fifteen years of rigging, maintenance and shutdown work on industrial and construction sites means we understand how a working site runs, from permits and isolation to schedules that cannot slip. It also means we will tell you honestly if dry ice is not the right fit for your job.
If you would rather see it than read about it, we will come out and run a demo on one of your assets. That is usually a faster conversation than a specification sheet.
- B-BBEE
- Level 1 contributor — your spend with us is recognised at 135%
- Sector experience
- Industrial and construction
- Accelerator
- Completed the TerraFoundry climate-tech accelerator in August 2026 — supported by Western Cape DEDAT and run by FSAT Labs
- Registration
- Lehlabule (Pty) Ltd, 2025/032115/07
- Service area
- Cape Town and surrounding areas
Compliance and credentials
What your vendor onboarding pack will ask for. Current documents are sent on request.
| Requirement | Status |
|---|---|
| Company registration (CIPC) | Lehlabule (Pty) Ltd — 2025/032115/07 |
| B-BBEE status | Level 1 contributor — 135% procurement recognition. Certificate or affidavit on request. |
| Safety, health and environment policy | Documented. Provided with every site file. |
| Risk assessment and method statement | Site-specific, issued before work starts. |
| CO₂ supply | Food-grade solid carbon dioxide (CO₂), certificate on request |
Get in touch
Tell us the asset that is costing you the most time.
Send a photo of it on WhatsApp if that is quicker. We will tell you honestly whether dry ice is the right process for it — sometimes it is not, and it is cheaper for everyone to find that out early.