Water Tank In-Service Painting

Draining of water tanks to conduct repair or maintenance work was once a necessary yet costly concern, until in-service water tank coating application was made possible by the breakthrough in moisture-cured urethane (MCU) coatings.

MCU tank coating products effectively react with water condensation present in water tanks, because like all urethane coatings it contains foundational isocyanate groups of atoms reactive to hydrogen-based compounds. Because of this, the single-component MCU coatings eliminate the need for tank draining during tank coating application. With draining no longer necessary, in-service painting can be done to the water tank, allowing it to function without interruption to service.

MCU coatings not only make in-service painting possible, it also provides enduring protection and restore the aesthetic value of the water tank.

MCU coatings are applied easily and similar to ordinary protective coatings, requiring only careful surface preparation, and several layers of coating application applied evenly by skilled painting workers. In applying MCU tank coating, surface preparation entails the thorough cleansing and removal of any chalking, rust, or loose coatings that has lodged in the tank's surface. An MCU primer is then applied following manufacturer's thickness specifications. A MIO-aluminum coat is later applied evenly to repair rusted or damaged areas. Another layer of MCU coating restores color and gloss to the surface, enhancing it aesthetically. A specified amount of time is allocated for drying.

How MCU Coatings Work for Water Tank In-Service Painting

In-service water tank painting is possible with the help of moisture-cured urethane (MCU) coatings. MCU tank coating products are quick-drying and easy to apply, while remaining as flexible and enduring as standard tank coating products. MCU tank coating systems have proven their effectiveness in in-service water tank coating applications, and as a result the American Water Works Association (AWWA) awarded MCU coatings with the AWWA D102-03 Industry Standard as OCS (Outside Coating System) 2.

The effectiveness of MCU coatings for damp surface applications is attributed to the foundational isocyanate groups of atoms that all urethane coatings contain. Isocyanate group atoms are reactive to hydrogen-based compounds, such as water condensation found in water tanks. Many tank coating systems also include an intermediate coat mixture containing micaceous iron oxide (MIO) combined with aluminum pigments. The MIO-aluminum mixture overlaps with each other to form a barrier that prevents moisture and corrosive elements to damage the surface. The subsequent out-gassing that occurs from large amounts of surface moisture accumulated during MCU tank coating application can be removed by a simple scraping of pinhole-sized surface damages.

MCU coatings ideally cure at above 35 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. A slower curing reaction at lowered temperatures expectedly occur, although MCU application is still possible to as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

MCU Coating for Water Tank In-Service Painting

Despite the challenges involved in the repair and maintenance of water tanks, tank coating activities must still be conducted, nevertheless, to keep the tank in good condition and secure its longevity over time. In the past, the cost of draining the tank's content to prevent condensation during coating application, and eliminate the risk of a subsequent tank coating failure, was unavoidable. In-service painting of water tanks was clearly needed to avoid having to drain the tank during tank coating application.

With technological breakthroughs in coating systems in the recent years, in-service water tank painting is now possible with the help of moisture-cured urethane (MCU) coating. MCU tank coating products are quick-drying and easy to apply, cutting down the length of time that it takes to apply tank coatings. On top of that, MCU coatings maintain the flexible and enduring capabilities of standard tank coatings with a tolerance to varied application conditions, abrasion-resistance, and imperviousness to wind-blown dust, soil specks and other damage-causing impacts.

MCU tank coating systems are so effective for in-service water tank painting jobs that the American Water Works Association (AWWA) gave the product the singular recognition with their AWWA D102-03 Industry Standard as OCS (Outside Coating System) 2.

Painting In-Service Water Tanks

Until recently, a common practice used in water tank coating repair and maintenance starts with draining the tank content before any coating work can be done. Draining is necessary because moisture condensation is often present in water tanks and can interfere with coating application, potentially leading to tank coating failure.

But draining the water tank prior to tank coating application often proves to be a costly activity, mostly because many facilities do not have a secondary storage tank to serve as contingency container where content can be transferred while the primary water tank is unusable for tank coating work. For water tanks that hold crucial water for the community's fire protection system, the amount of time that the water tank is unavailable for coating is a great risk that further adds to the challenge of tank coating. The same is true with water tanks that hold drinking water supply -- a careful job done the quickest way possible.

And yet despite the risks and challenges involved in water tank coating application, repair or maintenance jobs must be conducted in order to keep water tanks in good condition and protect them against future and costly damages. In-service painting of water tanks is clearly the best approach for tanks of with such requirements and considerations.

Coating Solutions to Trafficked Area Problems – Part 2

Continued: Coating Solutions to Trafficked Area Problems

The last blog discussed a couple of solutions to high-trafficked area flooring problems, such as water infiltration of concrete floorings and the risk of incurring osmotic-blistered floorings.

Another flooring problem that can occur is regular freeze-thaw exposure, common in patios and outdoor walkways that are subject to the yearly changes in the season. A regular freezing and thawing of floorings in such trafficked areas can result to the deterioration of the surface and the lessening of slip resistance. To remedy this problem, there is a need to repair first the holes and cracks in the floor caused by freezing, using a fast-setting cement. An industrial floor coating primer is then applied afterwards, followed by an even application of coating mixture, and a roller skims through the surface to release trapped air. To restore slip resistance, quartz sand is applied, and a sealing coat completes the industrial floor coating system that is now repaired, more protected and lasts longer than before.

For high-trafficked floors that require only a minimal amount of time for repair work, like runways or hotel lobbies that are constantly used by visitors, the process of floor maintenance starts with a thorough cleanup of the floors and a careful removal of any contaminants and water. A fast-filling and fast-setting industrial floor coating product is then applied, ensuring a rapid return-to-service of the trafficked area.

Coating Solutions to Trafficked Area Problems – Part 1

Implementing maintenance or repair work on high-trafficked areas of commercial, residential and industrial facilities can be a challenging project for facility managers, because of the volume of activity and people that access such areas on a daily basis.

For trafficked areas with concrete flooring, one of the frequent problems is a failure in damp-proofing, causing water to infiltrate the area. In such cases, the industrial floor coating to apply is often a rapid-set cement-based product. The rapid-setting coat sets in less than 2-3 minutes, and this functions critically to halt the further spread of water. Industrial floor coating products which are based on epoxy-modified polymers then seal the floor effectively, and have been known to withstand large amounts of hydrostatic pressure afterwards.

For new or freshly-laid floorings, there is a risk of acquiring osmotic blistering that not only mars the appearance of the surface but also affects the coating quality, leading to coating failure. To prevent this, industrial floor coating products need to be poured out in specified thickness to aid in curing. A measure of fine sand is then broadcasted to the surface and, within 2 days after application, finishing coats can be applied to complete surface resistance against osmotic blistering.

The next blog will discuss industrial floor coating applications for freeze-thaw and minimal-downtime trafficked area floorings.

Industrial Floor Coating Applications

Because high-trafficked floors are constantly exposed to various activities that can lead to deterioration, and because the very nature of high-trafficked areas requires for short maintenance downtime, there is a need for industrial floor coating products that are not only quick and easy to apply, but also guarantee quality performance against varying heavy and frequent loads.

The range of applications that require industrial floor coating products differ depending on the activities of the business and the manner with which facility floors are used in any particular facility.

Service-oriented industries like hotel and restaurants, for example, require industrial floor coating products that help maintain the strict requirement for cleanliness and sanitation. The same requirement applies for public venues like concert halls, sports stadium or movie houses that require industrial floor coating products suitable for high-volume visitor traffic on a daily basis.

For these applications, the highest-performing industrial floor coating products that can remove traces of scuffs, and spills, as well as repair damages from hard-point impacts would be very suitable.

In general, industrial floor coating products should be flexible to be able to work for different types of requirements -- from maintaining floor sanitation by preventing dirt, bacteria and other contaminants, to providing protection against exposure to water, oil and other water-based solutions. But the most important factors for selecting industrial floor coating products is that they should ideally be durable, environment-friendly and easy to apply.

Effective Solutions to Trafficked Area Problems

Because of their constant exposure to a variety of activities and applications, floorings are one of the most vulnerable areas in any residential, commercial, or industrial facility. Floorings often receive a fair amount of damage due to mechanical load or constant human traffic, requiring the industrial floor coating system to be re-applied for repair and maintenance.

High-trafficked floors, in particular, have problematic maintenance issues because of the steady stream of activities, people, and equipment using these floors daily. Hotel lobby floors, for instance, must be constantly clean and dirt-free to achieve an inviting and welcoming look, even while being frequently used by visitor. Pool floors and spas, on the other hand, are constantly exposed to water and require regular antimicrobial sanitizing to prevent the growth of molds and bacterial infestation.

Public venues pose another challenge due to larger quantities of dirt, oil, or food spills produced by thousands of people sharing the space at the same time. Industrial floors are subjected to stresses caused by frequent loads from fork lifts, trucks, and mechanical equipments, causing deterioration in the industrial floor coating.

Maintaining high-trafficked floors is further compounded by the fact that most of these areas cannot afford a long downtime or inaccessibility during industrial floor coating application.

Only quick and durable industrial floor coating products can therefore address the need for repair and protection of these high-trafficked floors.

Importance of the Emergency Preparedness Plan

For the early prevention, quick resolution, and effective recovery in the event of a public health emergency situation like the current H1N1 pandemic flu, the facility manager must rely on an emergency preparedness plan that has been previously established for the facility.

Having taken into consideration the needs of the various facility stakeholders such as the tenants, employees, and external providers, the facility manager should incorporate these requirements into the emergency preparedness plan to establish the critical responses and actions that must be executed before, during and after a pandemic flu or health crisis outbreak.

A well-crafted emergency preparedness plan ensures business continuity for the facility and is often one of the deciding factors for tenants to buy or lease within the facility. The emergency preparedness and response plan is a statement or declaration of assurance that the tenants' personal safety is protected when they are in the facility premises.

Given the importance of the emergency preparedness plan, it must undergo a thorough review and regular testing to ensure that is it always effective when actual emergency situations arise. To do this, regular emergency drills and constant communication on safety issues between the facility manager and tenants must be conducted. These activities will help in the prevention of a possible outbreak, and when the worse does happen, the tenants are already informed of their roles in activating the emergency response plan, increasing the likelihood of controlling and resolving the crisis faster and more effectively.

Elements of an Effective Emergency Response

In the event of a public health emergency such as the recent pandemic flu, the facility manager must act as an enabler of the quickest and most effective response to prevent endangering the lives of building tenants. The facility manager should encourage stakeholder involvement in the creation of an emergency preparedness plan that encompasses a comprehensive response – from early prevention and threat detection, effective communication, execution, and recovery actions.

The emergency plan will ensure business continuity because integrated in the plan are the key elements that involve people, resources and functions that should all fall into place in the event of a public health crisis. Because of the high stakes involved in the pandemic flu and similar public health emergencies, the facility manager should strive to setup the key elements below as part of the facility’s emergency preparedness and response plan:

• Clear communication lines to facilitate crisis prevention, early detection and mitigation;

• Identification of key emergency service providers that can be contacted before, during and after a public health emergency, such as medical providers, police and ambulance services, among others;

• Identification of mission-critical operations, and the key people to maintain them, during crisis time;

• Activation of clear operating procedures during crisis scenario or when there is imminent disruption of important business activities, supplies and resources;

• Organization of a command or administrative center that will support the logistical requirements during crisis, such as utilities, resource inventory, medical support, food and transportation, among others.

Public Health Emergency Stakeholders

Public health emergencies like the H1N1 flu raises global concern because of its harmful effect to the human population, causing sickness, incapacitation and even death. Unlike natural calamities that strike for a limited period of time and in limited locations, the pandemic flu can last longer as it spreads all around the world, and primarily hits the human population.

Because of the devastating effect of the pandemic flu, it is also a concern of the facility manager tasked to protect the safety of residential, commercial or industrial tenants. The facility manager must be a catalyst to organize the proper responses of all concerned stakeholders in the event of a public health emergency.

It falls on the facility manager to coordinate the creation and implementation of an emergency preparedness plan for the facility, involving building tenants, facility employees, third-party service vendors or suppliers, and external stakeholders such as the local government and public safety organizations.

The facility manager must enable the quickest and most effective response to any emergency. Stakeholder involvement in emergency preparedness planning ensures that the safety plan encompasses not only the most comprehensive emergency response procedures, but also stakeholders’ inputs. A deep level of stakeholder involvement results to early prevention and threat detection, effective communication, control, mitigation, evacuation and recovery actions.

Facility Managers Guide for Public Health Emergency Preparedness

The threat of a global epidemic or pandemic is sweeping all over the world today, due to the recent outbreak and spread of the H1N1 strain of the Influenza A virus. Everywhere in the world, concerned governments and health organizations are trying to mitigate the pandemic flu by instituting preventive and precautionary measures.

Public health emergencies like the H1N1 flu or "swine flu" raises global alarm because of its devastating effects to the human population. It can cause serious illnesses that may lead to death.

The pandemic flu is also a concern of the facility manager who has the responsibility to ensure that smaller microcosms of the world such as the residential, commercial or industrial facility is kept safe and protected from any types of risks or threats. It falls on the shoulders of the facility manager to keep building tenants informed, involved and empowered in case a public health emergency threatens the facility premises and the areas around it.

In the case of the pandemic flu, it is a threat to the facility because it primarily brings damages to people, and when humans are stricken, incapacitated or dead, disruption to key businesses inevitably follows, causing financial damages on the side.

The facility manager must be committed to coordinate the establishment and execution of an emergency preparedness or contingency plan for the facility, in the event that the dreaded pandemic flu or any other possible calamity arises.

Protective Industrial Coatings for Experts

Because of the high demand for protective linings and coatings for business facilities, painting experts also maintain a list of their top preferences of protective industrial coatings.

One of the protective coatings that experts prefer to use is fluoropolymer industrial coatings. These protective coatings offer time-tested resistance against corrosion and chemical damages. Surface substrates are impervious to corrosive damages through the help of a thin layer of protective film applied. There are also protective coatings that act uniquely as a thermal barrier, resisting extreme temperatures and providing effective enhancement to surface substrates. These products are electroplated coatings that are chemically applied -- thin films that have high protective capabilities even in severe conditions.

Thermal-cure epoxy coatings are another range of protective industrial coatings products that offer high corrosion and abrasion protection. These products also provide high tolerance against damages due to impact and frictions. And, when it comes to high-pressure loads, molybdenum disulfide delivers remarkable performance, being imbued with a unique lubrication system that reduces wear and tear and friction during intense loads.

The wide array of choices of industrial coatings products that are now available in the market -- from epoxy thermal cures to polyurethane high-gloss topcoats -- benefits facility managers in the long run, because it gives paintings experts the freedom to utilize the most suitable industrial coatings for the specific job, delivering effective yet affordable results.

Non-Stick Industrial Coatings for Experts

The vast variety of industrial coatings products in the market these days can be confusing to ordinary users, but expert painting contractors maintain a database of their "favorite" coatings, suitable for any particular coatings project. Based on long experience and a deep knowledge of the characteristics, components and applicability of industrial coatings, experts can pinpoint with a high degree of accuracy what products are appropriate for any specific coatings project.

Coating specialists generally maintain a selection of the choicest non-stick industrial coatings. Non-stick coatings have the unique ability to effectively prevent solid substances or materials from adhering to the coated surface.

Non-stick coatings often vary in their adhesion capabilities, with some industrial coatings products going as far as to adhere strongly and be a permanent part of the surface substrate through arc-spraying. Such non-stick coatings are low-friction, non-wetting, and have been transformed electrically, resulting in improved temperature and chemical resistance, thereby guaranteeing long-term endurance against damages.

PTFE (polytetrafluoro ethylene) coatings are preferred by experts because of their superior performance at high temperatures -- the highest for flouropolymers. FEP (fluorinated ethylene-propylene) industrial coatings, on the other hand, have the capabilities of PFTE coatings plus the ability for melt-processing, which is an important coating requirement in chemical processing industries. FEPs achieve chemical inertness and is resistant to heat and the weather, making it a robust and reliable product to use.

Industrial Coatings that Experts Use

Coatings manufacturers are incessantly challenged by the increasing costs of raw materials and competition from foreign coatings manufacturers to come up with the most innovative industrial coatings. As a result of their efforts in the drawing boards, many high-quality and cost-efficient industrial coatings products proliferate in the market today.

This bewildering array of choices may seem like searching a needle in the haystack, but in the hands of painting specialists, the products are narrowed down into their choicest selections. Painting experts can easily identify the best among these products because of their years of experience and a deep knowledge of how industrial coatings products are manufactured and applied.

Experienced painting contractors maintain a database of top products that they often use, including all pertinent data about any particular industrial coatings product. Experts have their own top choices when it comes to industrial coatings products, considering product performance in terms of surface protection, lubricity, and temperature resistance, among many other requirements that they commonly encounter in coatings projects.

Given these considerations, experts decide on the most appropriate industrial coatings product to use for the job, with the end view of achieving the best performance. The many options available in the market give painting experts the higher freedom to find the perfect match for any coatings application project.

Quality Industrial Coatings for Experts

The global economic crisis continues to dampen the profitability of many industries and businesses, but the industrial coatings market is in relatively better shape than most. This is due in large part to the continuing demand for coatings services from the construction, machinery and manufacturing sectors. These industries, after all, remain sturdy pillars of the country's economy -- providing important products to the populace -- and therefore are compelled to continue their day-to-day production activities despite reduced manpower and lower levels of operation.

Since it is business as usual for these sectors, industrial coatings companies are hard-pressed to continue providing quality industrial coatings for their manufacturing and repair needs. Not an easy task with the soaring prices of raw materials and the increasing competition posed by overseas manufacturers. Coating manufacturers in the country are continually challenged to produce better industrial coatings and processes that are competitive in terms of costs and quality.

As the competition heats up between local and foreign coatings manufacturers, the end users benefit with wider choices in better-enhanced, high-quality and cost-efficient industrial coatings. The best industrial coatings products in the market -- from epoxy thermal cures to polyurethane high-gloss topcoats -- give industrial coatings experts the freedom to achieve successful yet affordable results that provide the best performance and protection in coatings application projects.