The important thing with a successful painting application is to prepare the surface that needs be painted carefully.
To paint storage tanks requires the same careful surface preparation as every other surface.
Any coating system will fail if the paint adheres poorly on the surface that needs be painted. Not even the use of the highest quality paints will prevent a coatings failure, when the target surface has poor adhesion properties.
What is the reason for poor adhesion?
Foreign contaminants like dirt, oils, dust or water can ruin adhesion. Better surface adhesion is also achieved when the surface includes a rougher profile or texture — allowing coatings to rest over the irregular surface better than when the surface is smooth.
Painting New Storage Tanks
To paint storage tanks successfully, surface preparation must be done with more care. New tanks, in particular, come with smooth surfaces initially. This smoothness or glossiness needs to be removed to increase the adhesion properties on the tank’s surface. To organize the tank, the exterior must be blasted with sand with the use of a sand-blaster or by hand, removing the glossy surface.
Another way to remove the glossiness prior to painting the storage tanks is to expose the surface to heat using a hand-held propane torch. But this process should be done very carefully, so as not to hold the flame too much in a single location on the surface.
To paint storage tanks that are older, a rough surface may are already achieved, and surface cleaning will suffice to prepare it for painting.
