There are a lot of steel storage tanks for drinking water all over the world which need protection in order to save the asset, the valuable drinking water. As the water is highly corrosive for steel vessels, the steel surface must be separated from the stored liquid.
The most effective way to prevent contact between the two materials is a drinking water tank lining. Wolftank Austria has its own lining system for drinking water storage tanks. Irrespective of the size and shape of the vessel.
The challenge
The biggest challenge of the project was that our Spanish partner, Altereco, had never applied this lining system in Spain. Hence, it was a completely new solution for them and for the market.
On the other hand, Altereco has already collected enough experiences with Wolftank owned systems such as Duplo® and other single and double wall applications. They have the experienced manpower and the proper equipment for such a lining work. They got to know the specifications of the products and application steps and they could smoothly execute the project.
The solution
The first step to ensure the accurate adhesion between the subsurface and the coating is surface preparation. For this project, we used instead of the conventional surface preparation method such as grid-blasting or jet-blasting, we applied our rust converter agent after the mechanical removal of the rust. Using this methodology the implementer saves not only time because the application takes only a few hours and the reaction time of agent is 2-3 hours. It also saves money as well because it is not necessary the costly blasting equipment and the grid. In addition, there is not any dust or residuals which must be removed which also costs time and money.
Subsequently, the coating must be applied. The resin which is used for drinking water is a 2-component epoxy-based resin that can be applied with airless spraying machine or it can also be rolled. In this case, the lining was rolled in two layers.
The outcome
The Spanish project finished with excellent results. Now, the tank expected extension of the lifetime is up to 10 years.
This example shows that Wolftank Austria drinking water tank lining can be applied all over the world. The system has many advantages. But especially for the customers, the short downtime because of the easy and fast application.
More information about Wolftank Austria water storage and distribution solutions available here.
