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New Armor for Steel Tanks Although the contract started with six tanks, the client added two more at the halfway point. That brought the total amount of surface area to ~30,000 square feet (2,787 m²), working mainly with rollers and brushes. The midway change order introduced a challenge: metallic paint. Because of the nearby water, the crew couldn't spray-apply the urethane coating, so they had to use a special, more expensive roller for the special paint. Application Audible Working through the coatings manufacturer, Budeke's Paints — the distributor to OTN — submitted a few samples for UA to choose from. What they chose was a gunmetal gray urethane with metallic. "I just think it's kind of refreshing," Ron Trout, sales manager for Budeke's Paints, said of the finished tanks. "It's kind of something new. Not just a bland battleship gray. I think it's cool, and I think it puts Baltimore on the map. It's nice to have a different job like that." But with the use of metallic and the inability to spray-apply it, this stage required a Hail Mary pass. "Metallics are typically applied on small items, like a piece of furniture, not a tank," Trout said. So, with the color chosen, the coatings crew worked a strategy to get even coverage and uniformity in color. Tey tried out a few methods of rolling this specialty topcoat before coming up with something that could be called complete. "We wanted to use a standard sleeve," said Frater, which could mainly be attributed to the higher price of the specialty sleeve that was suggested by the manufacturer. But with that higher price came a better roller product that has "a different kind of fiber," Frater explained. "It's a tighter-knit fabric…a whole different design than I've ever seen." He compared it to a mop, which he said held less paint and spread it out more evenly than a regular sleeve. So after completing several samples, this coatings company, which has been incorporated since the '70s, knew that it would be going with the more expensive option by Modern Masters. Te fnish that the nine-inch-long (23 cm) metallic paint sleeve ofered was that much better…even if it meant paying for about three sleeves per day. Going "the extra distance to make sure they deliver a product that meets the customer's expectation" certainly doesn't surprise Trout. In fact, whenever Budeke's Paints works with OTN, Trout knows that they'll come out with a win. "Every Te Carboline 133 LH urethane topcoats were applied at 2–4 mils (51–102 microns) DFT over the course of 2–3 days. Te three tanks that were to receive the wrapped images cured for seven full days to ensure that the coatings were no longer outgassing. Ten, it was time for AB Installations to come back in to apply the athletes' images. And then, after having the scafolding very carefully removed, AB Installations was able to call those tanks a wrap! As for the one lone foam tank, the OTN crew merely powerwashed it and covered it with a coat of primer and a single coat of Carboline Carbocrylic 3350. Using a Graco Airless Sprayer with a 517 tip, the crew applied 3 mils (76 microns). "We did spray the foam tank because that was acrylic paint," Frater said. "You can't really do that with epoxy and urethane...they can travel for miles." In fact, that's why the crew decided to roller- and brush-apply the epoxy and urethane products. Although they oftentimes spray-apply these types of coatings, they needed to avoid potential pollution (not to mention overspray on surrounding cars, boats, and houses). And although it doesn't seem like such a big deal to have to roll or brush on the tanks' paints, it turned into a bigger issue with the change order that came about halfway through the job. Delay of Game OTN explained that UA's contract originally asked for six tanks to be updated, but after about a month and a half into the project, the company decided to tackle two more. And they also decided that they wanted the now four tanks that were unwrapped and not covered in foam to be painted in a more exciting color. For a company whose mission is to "make all athletes better through passion, design, and the relentless pursuit of innovation," it should be no surprise that the color more suitable to UA's shiny new updates was a sparkly new paint. COATINGSPRO JANUARY 2014 55