Coatings used in water tank painting are often prone to adhesion problems. When the tank’s inner chamber is filled with water, condensation unavoidably occurs, which keeps the tank’s outer surface damp and prone to coatings failure. To complete the water tank painting activity, the tank has to be drained of all its content, blasted or cleaned of contaminants and kept dry before any coating activity can be implemented. Draining the tank is equivalent to tank downtime, which is a cost accrued by the facility.
Thanks to recent advances in coatings technology, moisture-cured coatings now provide the answer to in-service water tank-painting. With moisture-cured coatings, there is no need to drain the tank of its contents, in return saving the facility a large amount of time and money.
What are Moisture-cured Coatings?
Moisture-cured coatings are designed with a unique chemistry that is particularly suitable for in-service water tank painting. The secret hidden within the coatings chemistry is the isocyanate groups of monomers that are known to be very reactive to any trace of hydrogen. In the case of water tank painting using moisture-cured urethane coatings, the isocyanate monomers react to the presence of hydrogen in the tank surface, which is usually in the form of water vapor released due to the humid conditions in the inner chambers of the storage tank.
The reaction induces the applied coating to dry quickly. This significantly decreases the time it takes to apply the coatings, which is one source of cost reduction in water tank painting application. In the course of time, the moisture-cured coatings system provides strong and durable protection to the outer tank surface. And because they are not vulnerable when hydrogen is present, they are not prone to failure even when the tank is constantly assaulted by humidity-borne moisture.
Downtime-Free Water Tank Painting
Moisture-cured coatings make possible the conduct of in-service tank painting activities, which is very favorable for facilities with storage tank operations, such as major industrial plants, commercial properties and public facilities.
Without the need to drain the tank of its content prior to coatings application, there is no downtime that comes with water tank painting projects. When potable water can still be accessed by the local populace, for example, or a water tank can still provide fire-protection support to a community even while it is being re-painted, then that translates to a huge amount of savings in cost.
Moisture-cured systems are also popular in facilities that are often damp and never completely moisture-free, such us pipes and marine structures. They can tolerate rusting that is a common occurrence in water-logged structures. They perform as well as conventional paints, and as single-component formulations, they can stand up to damages from toxic chemical exposures.
The fact that they are single-component systems provides for water tank painting with one-coat coverage — therefore very easy to apply. Most of these coatings are also designed with no pot life limit. They can be applied even in high humidity or below-zero-degree temperatures.
Moisture-cured coatings also come in a wide range of colors. This makes possible water tank painting projects that involve aesthetic overhaul, such as when changing the facility logo or slapping on a new color as part of a business advertising strategy.
Water tank painting applications greatly benefit from the use of moisture-cured coatings, increasing application productivity, while also reducing pre-application preparation and post-application cleaning times, ultimately improving the total speed and efficiency of project completion.
