Puerto Rico Pharmaceutical Plant Corroded Tank Repair & Refurbishment
A pharmaceutical company patch repair a heavily corroded industrial tank at their plant in Puerto Rico, sealing numerous cracks in the roof and protecting the metalwork from further corrosion to keep the tank operational until a scheduled replacement in several years time.
Case Study Overview
Site Pharmaceutical plant
Location Puerto Rico
Repair Type Tank repair & corrosion protection
Products E190 Pipe & Tank Repair Kit
Tank Defect
The tank was suffering from heavy corrosion, especially on its roof. The pharmaceutical company operating the plant had been hoping to keep the system operational until scheduled replacement of the tank in several years time.
Unfortunately, the corrosion became so bad that a repair had to be made. The primary consideration for the repair was cost; the company did want to go spending thousands of dollars repairing and refurbishing the tank, only for it to be condemned in the near-future.
Sylmasta recommended coating the tank with Ceramic Brushable Green Epoxy Coating to create a strong, silicon carbide reinforced outer shell around the tank offering high resistance to corrosion and abrasion.
Paint, rust and grime had to be removed from the roof before Ceramic Brushable could be applied. During this process, the brittle metalwork ended up crumbling away to leave multiple holes in the tank.
These cracks now required sealing via a patch repair before the corroded tank could be painted with Ceramic Brushable Green, making the application more complex than it had initially appeared.
Solution
The cracks in the roof of the tank were bridged using an E190 Epoxy Pipe & Tank Repair Kit. The Kit contains E190 Brushable Epoxy Resin and Fibreglass Tape for making composite patch repairs to structures which cannot be wrapped.
Strips of Fibreglass Tape were cut off, soaked with E190 Resin and then stretched over each hole. Within 30 minutes, E190 Resin penetrated the Fibreglass Tape and cured, turning it into a rock hard material covering the cracks.
The application continued by building layers of Fibreglass Tape soaked in E190 Resin until the team making the repair were satisfied it had been built thick enough to permanently seal the hole.
Once the composite patch repair stage had been completed, the tank was covered in three coatings of Ceramic Brushable Green. A brushable epoxy coating similar to Liquid Metal Epoxy Coating, Ceramic Brushable is filled with silicon carbide rather than metal.
It cures to create an ultra-smooth, hard-wearing material which seals surfaces. As well as corrosion, Ceramic Brushable protects against chemical attack, cavitation, erosion and pitting.
Outcome
The entire repair of the corroded tank was completed in a little over 48 hours. E190 Resin has a full cure time of 24 hours from its final coating, as does Ceramic Brushable.
Once finished, the application ensured there were no remaining breaches in the roof of the tank. The whole structure was suitably reinforced against future corrosion and protected from environmental elements.
Follow up
Complications down the line meant the planned replacement of the tank eventually had to be suspended. Five years later and the refurbished tank was still in service, fully functional and with no further signs of corrosion.
Products Used
E190 Pipe & Tank Repair Kit
Kit containing E190 Epoxy Resin and Fibreglass Tape for composite patch repairs
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