Cold bonding cuts through-wall corrosion for Wessex Water 20 December 2013

Wessex Water is reporting that a GFS (glass fused to steel) sludge buffer tank at one of its sewage treatment sites has been swiftly and easily repaired using Belzona polymeric repair composites and cold bonding techniques.

Chris Mills, of Wessex Water, explains that the buffer tank was suffering from through-wall corrosion at the vapour interface level, so was only being run at 65% capacity.

Belzona kept the site running with minimal disruption and the repair work was carried out without hot work or the use of mechanical equipment, with the attendant sparks risk.

"We have [used] Belzona cold plate bonding solution on GFS tanks and have saved a lot of time and money by doing so," states Mills.

"We have also been able to repair tanks while they are still in service as the repair is a spark free repair," he adds.

After cleaning the areas, surface preparation by hand abrasion was carried out. Belzona surface-tolerant epoxies were chosen because they are easily applied on-line to wet and oily surfaces.

Repair plates pre-coated with Belzona 5831 (ST-Barrier) were cold bonded over the through-wall defects using Belzona 1831 (Super UW-Metal). Finally, Belzona 5831 was applied to the repair area to prevent future corrosion.

Mills says the application took less than two days to complete, and that no hot work, no replacements and no lengthy shutdowns were required.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Belzona Polymerics Ltd
Wessex Water plc

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