What are Infrastructure & Assets?
The physical structures of an entity make up the “infrastructure and assets.” These can include drilling rigs, chemical plants, or any other facility.
How can they be protected?
Many structures operate in aggressive environments. These environments allow for attacks to occur on important pieces of the structure. If left unprotected, these damaged assets become unacceptable for safety and can also suffer from economic consequences.
In efforts to protect these structures, we have created polymer solutions that can turn damage and potential disaster into a durable and well-engineered repair. When remedial attention is carefully planned and executed, polymeric resin repair is a very workable practical solution, compared to an uneconomical “hot-work” steel repair.
Examples of Economic Life Extension Projects
- 26,000 sq.ft. of the underwater surface of a neutral buoyancy pool required recoating. The pool was in constant use and recoating in service was required. TFT supplied special underwater applied coatings to enable the pool to remain in service, without draining, during the recoating project. (See Case History #065)
- A large platform in the North Sea had badly corroded, damaged, and sagging decks but removing and replacing the affected areas would have been uneconomical. An engineering solution was proposed that involved laying new lightweight steel over the existing deck using an epoxy resin as the adhesive. TFT formulated a custom low modulus, highly adherent epoxy resin that was poured into the void spaces between the old and new decks eliminating potential corrosion cells. The project was completed in a short time with perfect results, minimal downtime, and costing a fraction of the price for a total overhaul. (See Case History #067)
- A nuclear submarine had a leak in a heat exchanger located several decks deep. The location of the heat exchanger made it a time consuming and expensive proposition to remove it for a topside repair. TFT formulated a special, water-tolerant injectable repair compound that was able to effectively seal off the defective exchange tube in a simple overnight maintenance operation. (See Case History # 063)
- Anticorrosion coating of structural steel where proper surface preparation is not always possible is made possible with TowerGard 568. This product was specially developed for use on structures such as microwave towers which can be very high and are often wet. TowerGard 568 is a one-coat, high build, and easy to use anticorrosive coating designed for exactly these applications. (See Case History # 061)
Conclusion
It is possible to use modern polymeric repair materials to repair and increase the remaining service life of existing assets that would otherwise be impossible or substantially more costly using conventional techniques.