Company: Roperhurst
Application: Industrial Electronics Facility
Location: Finland
Contract Value: £150,000
Overall Project Value: Not disclosed
Overview: Fabricate and install a 4m diameter, 3m tall storage/mixer tank for a global manufacturer’s site in Finland using E-CTFE (Halar) reinforced with a chemically-resistant fibreglass resin.
The Challenge
The combination of chemicals proposed meant that this chemical storage tank necessitated a very high level of chemical and temperature resistance, and so E-CTFE (Halar) had been selected, reinforced with a high chemical resistance polyester resin. Working in conjunction with our material supplier, we also arranged for laboratory immersion testing of the material with two different media at 80 C to give our customer comfort as to suitability.
The vessel was to be fabricated to BS4994 (Specification for design and construction of vessels and tanks in reinforced plastics) welded by staff qualified under EN13067 and laminated by staff qualified to BS4994.
Roperhurst’ team of six Halar-qualified welders worked tirelessly to meet the tight deadlines of the end client. The project had added complexity caused by space constraints at the client’s site, which meant that the vessel could only be manoeuvred into position if it was sectional.
We therefore fabricated the vessel in three flanged sections, a base section, a larger mid section and a cone section. The base section had four outlets, the mid-section a single outlet and the cone several inlets/vents.
A steel frame was fabricated to support a stirrer and other process-related items. The tank was finished with a purple gel coat and every joint fully spark tested once more.
The tank was fully assembled in our works for client inspection, and then was disassembled for onward transportation.
Due to the size of the vessel, air transport was ruled out and it was despatched by road and ferry to its final destination. Midway through the project we were also asked to produce a further three rectangular GRP storage tanks which were completed to timescale and despatched to site.
We provided a team to the overseas site to oversee final installation and to carry out final spark testing of the vessel before commissioning.