THE PROBLEM
As part of the re-cladding of the steep house sections of the structural steelwork which had not been exposed for 30 years were revealed. These were exhibiting significant corrosion as a result of the high humidity which they had been exposed to.
SOLUTION
Due to the live production environment the other side of the temporary protection it was not possible to prepare the steelwork by dust or water producing methods. Therefore we proposed the preparation of the steels by method of mechanical methods prior to the application of a surface tolerant protective coatings system.
Initially the steels were prepared to ST2 by method of tungsten carbide scraping and needle gunning.
A primer coat of Chemco RS500P surface tolerant epoxy coating was applied to a thickness of 200 microns. This was followed by two coats of Chemco RA500M glass flake reinforced epoxy coating to a thickness of 200 microns per coat. Separate stripe coats were applied for each coat in contrasting colour.
The wet tolerant properties of these two coatings was particularly useful as the works had to take place in winter months where it would be extremely costly and difficult to maintain the atmosphere within the temporary protection due to the humid adjoining production environment.
