Steel Coating
Interior and exterior coating systems for steel cooling towers
Cooling tower coating solutions offer a range of critical benefits for maintaining essential systems and ensuring their longevity.
Here’s how they can help:
- Eliminate corrosion.
- Reduce bacteria growth.
- Stop water and chemical leaks.
- Extend the service life of your cooling towers for many years.
- RepelCoat is designed to withstand the harsh conditions of a cooling tower.
- Harsh – Chemical attack – High or low pH – Vibration – Excessive Joint Flexing
- Commercial Buildings – Industrial – Cold Storage – Food and Beverage
RepelCoat Coating System Range
RepelCoat offers a range of specialised solutions designed to meet these exact challenges:
For the application of the RepelCoat systems our personnel are trained in using the correct PPE, ventilation procedures, the application of the products, and hazard control.
RepelCoat is a registered trademark of FlowMatrix in Australia.
How can I choose the right coating system?
Choosing the right coating for a cooling tower is a complex challenge, as the product you select has to be incredibly tough to handle the punishing environment within these systems.
A robust cooling tower coating must withstand:
- Chemical attack: Constant exposure to water treatment chemicals.
- Extreme pH levels: Fluctuations between highly acidic and highly alkaline conditions.
- Corrosion: Protection against rust and material degradation.
- Erosion: Resistance to fast-moving water and abrasive grit.
- Vibration and Movement: The coating needs to be flexible enough to handle the tower’s constant operational movement and vibrations.
- Foot Traffic: Durability to endure regular maintenance activities.
- Diverse Substrates: Effective adhesion across a variety of materials, including steel, copper, fibreglass, and plastic.
Essentially, a cooling tower coating isn’t just about protection; it’s about providing a resilient barrier against a gauntlet of environmental stressors.
RepelCoat RCR-300: A Three-Stage System for Steel Protection
The RepelCoat RCR-300 is a robust, three-stage coating system designed to protect and seal failing steel and leaking seams or joints in cooling towers. Before applying the coating, we meticulously prepare the surface by blasting the steel back to bare metal, repairing any holes, and removing old, failed sealant.
Here’s how each layer of the RCR-300 system works:
- Primer Coat: This first layer acts as a powerful adhesive, locking directly onto the steel to create a strong bond.
- Flexible Surface Coat: The second coat is engineered for flexibility. It’s designed to move with the natural vibrations of a cooling tower and can withstand foot traffic without cracking.
- Chemical Resistant Topcoat: The final layer is a highly durable, chemical-resistant coating that can stand up to the harsh conditions often found in cooling towers.
The RCR-300 is a bonded system that’s both flexible and incredibly tough.
If the coating is ever damaged, for example, by a tradesperson cutting or drilling into it, the damage remains localised. This is a key benefit as it prevents the entire RepelCoat system from lifting off the base metal.
While the damaged area might experience localised corrosion, it’s easily repaired with a simple touch-up coat.
Learn more from our technical data sheet below:
Steel Basin Example
Steel Exterior Example
Protect Your Cooling Tower: The RepelCoat Advantage
Cooling towers face harsh conditions daily. Constant exposure to chemically treated water (including corrosive chlorine), fluctuating pH levels, and temperatures ranging from 15°C to a scorching 60°C create an extremely aggressive environment.
These factors, combined with significant vibration from fans and pumps, lead to:
- Sealant Failure and Leaks: Hot water, chemicals, and vibration cause sealants in joints to fail, resulting in leaks.
- Corrosion and Structural Damage: Steel surfaces like the water basin, casing, and fan components are highly susceptible to corrosion, which can lead to holes and structural compromise.
The Cost-Effective Solution
Once corrosion begins, your steel cooling tower is on a path to failure. However, applying the FlowMatrix RepelCoat coating system can prevent this.
Addressing corrosion and leaks early with RepelCoat is highly cost-effective, typically around 25% of the price of a full cooling tower replacement.
Replacing a cooling tower is a complex and expensive undertaking, requiring extensive disconnection, removal, structural rework, and re-plumbing. Furthermore, a new steel cooling tower may still need coating within 5-10 years to prevent similar issues.
Invest in RepelCoat to extend the life of your cooling tower and safeguard your assets.
Our Steel Coating Process
Internal steel basins, casing, and joint preparation for cooling tower coating solutions is a critical first step involving meticulous cleaning and mechanical abrasion or sandblasting of surfaces to remove contaminants and create an optimal surface for adhesion.
This ensures a smooth, monolithic surface that protects the underlying steel structure from corrosion and deterioration, extending the cooling towers longevity and effectiveness.
Standards: AS1627.4: Class III
Using mechanical tools and sandblasting
Repairing leaking legs and basins in cooling towers involves several crucial steps to ensure structural integrity and prevent water loss.
Typically, this process begins with thorough cleaning and surface preparation of the affected areas, followed by the application of specialised repair compounds or coatings designed to seal cracks and penetrations, ensuring the tower operates efficiently without leaks.
Corroded cooling tower legs pose a serious structural risk, as deterioration weakens the tower’s foundational support, potentially leading to a catastrophic tower failure.
Beyond the immediate danger, this corrosion can cause costly water leaks, decrease efficiency, and necessitate premature and expensive equipment replacement.
Preparation of interior seams for coating in a cooling tower is a crucial step to ensure the longevity and effectiveness of the protective barrier.
This involves meticulously cleaning the seams to remove all contaminants like rust, scale, and old coatings, followed by abrasion to create an ideal surface profile for strong adhesion.
Proper preparation of these critical areas prevents premature coating failure and protects the tower’s structural integrity.
Stopping leaks in a cooling tower’s seams and legs is paramount to maintaining its efficiency and structural integrity.
This involves a comprehensive approach, often including thorough cleaning, surface preparation, and the application of specialised sealants or coatings to ensure a watertight finish.
Effectively addressing these leaks prevents further damage, reduces water loss, and extends the cooling tower’s operational lifespan.
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