I’ve been checking out dry ice blasting today. Cool stuff. Pun intended, but it’s true:

* Strip off anything from sludge to smoke without damaging the underlying surface
* Clean anything from a locomotive to a circuit board
* No extra residue from the material that’s blasted—it just disappears as a harmless gas
* I gather that even the dry ice itself (frozen CO2—did you know that’s what dry ice is?) is a process byproduct and therefore recycled material

What’s not to like?

Plus, the blasting is just really cool to watch.

This short video compares dry ice blasting to sandblasting and has a neato visual that shows how material is blasted off the underlying surface (looks like a little atom bomb!)

This longer video shows all the various applications, including many in industry.

P.S. In my next post, I’ll tell how New Pig partially owes its existence to sandblasting.

My first day at New Pig, I threw up on the bathroom wall. No, I’m not a sissy. I’m not faint of heart. I was a jet engine mechanic in the Air Force. I played football with the boys growing up. I was doing barrel pickups with my dad at age four (me on barrel, him on the horse riding down to get me). I love the wildest rides at the fair, and I don’t throw up on bathroom walls all that often. In fact, not before or since, I don’t believe. I don’t know why I did that day. I wasn’t sick.

Looking back, I think my tummy was onto something that my brain wasn’t–that working at New Pig was going to be the ride of my life. More later.

Hey, if you’re like me and at times baffled by technology, you’ll probably relate to this message. Being of the “boomer” generation (without giving away my age) I often feel like a “singleton.” Singleton in Bloggers’ terms means “objects that exist globally and are the only one of their class.” :)

However, I don’t think I’m alone. Below is a really funny example of someone just like me, lost at times in a technical world. Check it out, it’s tooooo funny!

How does that relate to the New Pig World? Well, when it comes to products, PIG® products are relatively simple to choose and use. In fact in a recent survey of our customers, New Pig was given a 9.5 rating on a 10-point scale for “ease of use of products.”

And for those needing a little more help, we have a staff of PIGGERS here waiting to help. Give us a call today (1-800-HOT-HOGS®) and speak to one of our capable Service Reps. If your question baffles your rep, we have our staff of Technical Service Reps who will be able to answer your question and point you in the right direction.

Signing out now, time to get to work …

The sound of silence is not present in many workplaces. For many, noise is an everyday reality that comes with the job.

Recently New Pig had some changes to some equipment, and the question of noise levels was brought up.

I decided to work with our insurance company to find someone who could measure noise levels. It turns out they actually could come out and do the testing for us.

Two methods will be used: 1) Decimeters will be worn by certain Piggers in certain areas for a shift. This will measure their exposure to certain noise levels over a period of time and 2) testing in specific areas to measure noise levels.

The reason I bring this up is because many work sites have issues with noise and hearing safety.

If you have any questions about noise levels and hearing safety, please check this helpful article and chart.

Any other questions can be directed to your insurance company, Department of Health, or Department of Labor.

Protect your hearing now so silence is not the only sound you hear.

Hope this helped … I said … I HOPE THIS HELPED!

Snow’s an absorbent.

Ice floes = natural containment booms.

An iceberg can be like a huge chocolate with an oil center. Mmmm.

Read more in this cool article (yep, pun intended).

We don’t sell the new product PenBuddy, but it appeals to me for all of these reasons:

(a) little thing that could prevent a big accident

(b) convenient time-saver (pull, write, retract, repeat)

(c) I’m anal, and it brings a new level of neatness to the ol’ pen-and-clipboard combo.

George Boutilier has invited everyone to visit this special blog. Here is George in email:

This is a site my wife has started to let everyone know and share in our 3-year-old’s journey toward hearing and now toward speech. She wanted to share this with anyone who might have questions or concerns about their own children. This has been an ever-increasing problem in our area with children, and most people don’t know where to turn. She has put a lot of time and hard work into getting him this far in the last 14 months since his being diagnosed almost completely deaf from birth. I would appreciate your taking a little time and going online to check this out.

Welcome to a world of terms/words you may have never known.

Some are technical and not relevant, but most are at least part of the blogging lexicon.

Good to just browse and be able to use specific terms/words.

Below is Direct feedback from a valued customer, Steve, at an airport in Cleveland regarding a prototype for a new style of Drainblocker® Drain Cover that we sent for evaluation. Steve has been a customer of our current Drainblocker® product, which they regularly re-purchased due to rips and tears from daily, repeat use, which the product isn’t intended for.

I want to thank you once again for giving us the opportunity to be able to field-test some of your products. As far as the Drainblocker we are testing, WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT!!!! As of yet, my line guys have not found a way to destroy this one!

Our biggest problem with the old ones that you sell are that with constant daily handling, the corners tend to rip or tear within six months. (Chris jumping in here: Again, please note that our current Drainblocker® product is intended for emergency or occasional use, not constant daily use.)

The current one that we are testing for you is a great improvement with the additional weaving that is built into the one side. Because of the location of our one sewer grate in the main driveway, we have also had vehicles and trucks drive over the Drainblocker and other than tire tracks on the material, the Drainblocker received no damage. The outside elements also do not seem to break down the Drainblocker as fast either. I hope it will last into winter since we get hit hard at the airport with ice and snow.

Thank you once again for this opportunity to test your products. I will strongly recommend your products to our 43 other sites.

This product will be ready for launch in January 2009, which is approaching fast. Our Creative team has generated  a great product presentation which we are very excited about. (And I’m not just saying that because photos of me were turned into art for the instruction sheet … see below). Sales, customer service and our technical service teams will be involved in additional trainings to gain product knowledge and comfort level about this revolutionary new product.

This article mentions an apparent advancement in crimpable couplings that help prevent leaks in hydraulic lines.An excerpt: Both [of the hoses mentioned] handle petroleum, water-based fluids and synthetic hydraulic fluids. Applications include general hydraulic systems, hydraulic tools, mobile equipment and high-pressure pneumatic systems up to 500 psi. They are ideal for equipment such as power and telephone cherry pickers, lubrication lines, blowout preventer control lines, hydraulic lifts, farm machinery and construction equipment.

When leaks do happen, that’s a job for PIG® products. But it’s always nice to be able to prevent leaks in the first place.