Industrial Liquid Rubber Tank Coatings from LR Industrial Coatings

Rio Tinto's Hamersley Iron Thickener Tank, Yandicoogina Western Australia July 2010

LR Industrial Coatings and Trelleborg Engineered Systems combine expertise to supply and install SUPERIOR COATINGS.

Liquid Rubber Vezlar® & Liquid Rubber Acritech® chosen for corrosion and abrasion protection of Rio Tinto's Hamersley Iron thickener tank.

Rio Tinto's wholly owned Hamersley Iron is one of the world's largest iron ore producers. From mines in the iron rich Pilbara region of Western Australia it is a major to the Pacific rim and European steel industries. Hamersley wholly owns five mine suppliers - Mount Tom Price, Paraburdoo, Marandoo, Brockman and Yandicoogina.

Hamersley has a system capacity of 90 million tonnes per year, with iron ore transported from the mines to the port of Dampier on the north-west coast of Australia, on a 630 kilometre dedicated railway operation of some of the longest and heaviest trains in the world.

The Challenge
With the existing epoxy membrane starting to fail and no time to blast and prep for recoating, Liquid Rubber Vezlar®/Acritech ®system was the only Anti Corrosion and Abrasion Resistant coating system, one that could deliver the required performance and application result in the time allowed during the shutdown.

A remote and challenging project with high performance requirements. LR Industrial coatings and Trelleborg's Specialist Team delivered on time and on budget.

Starting to spray the Liquid Rubber Vezlar® coat in the mid afternoon at 3pm and completed 6hrs later under lights, the area was approximately 1300m2.

Due to low overnight temperatures, the membrane took more time to cure than anticipated, two nights and a full day was given to allow for the Liquid Rubber Vezlar®to cure to required moisture level. A final check with a moisture meter in various locations around the tank ensured the membrane was cured to the desired 10-12% moisture level.

The Liquid Rubber Acritech® top coat was then applied by using a GracoGH200 airless spray system with a .035 wide spray fan tip out of 205L drums.

This method allowed for the rapid application of two coats (approx 0.3mm per coat) of Liquid Rubber's Acritech® in approximately 2.5hrs per coat.

Top Coat - Liquid Rubber Acritech® Light Grey
The plant was scheduled to return to service Monday night, the application began Friday 3pm and team had completed the entire application by Sunday 4pm ready for de-isolation and return to service.