Painting above-ground water tanks used to involve costly out-of-service tank downtime. The downtime is because the tank’s water content has to be drained before the coatings application can be done. Water tank painting used to rely on coatings systems that are prone to adhesion failure when in the presence of condensed moisture — a given environment in water tanks.
With the development of moisture-cured urethane coatings, there is no need to drain the tank at all. Water tank painting can proceed even with damp surfaces. This opens the doors for in-service water tank painting applications that require no downtime and are friendlier on the budget.
How is this possible? The secret is in the chemistry of moisture-cured urethane coatings. All urethane coatings consist of monomers of isocyanate groups that are highly-reactive to hydrogen. When moisture-cured urethane coatings are applied to the tank surface, the isocyanate groups react with water vapor that is usually released in the humid storage tank conditions.
Moisture-cured urethane coatings systems can therefore be installed in areas that are hard to keep moisture-free, even in pipes and other marine structures. They can also tolerate rusting that is normally found in water-logged structures. This single component formulation is often used as protective anti-corrosion coatings for industrial and marine facilities.
