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COATINGSPRO SEPTEMBER 2015 47 solution was a GreenerBlast machine. "We were one of the frst few people to have one in our area," Belisle said of the vapor blaster. Te garnet media by Barton, water, and HoldTight 102 (to prevent fash rusting) are mixed in the pot into a slurry and then injected through the blast line. "[It] provides a very clean blast — it uses a considerable less amount of media than traditional blasting." It also helped that the equipment was virtually dustless and, therefore, easy to contain, Belisle said. "[Tere's] a lot of highly sensitive equipment in that room that you wouldn't want to contaminate with dust or dirt." Te crew pre-cleaned the units with Great Lakes Laboratories' No Rinse Prepaint Cleaner and water to the specifcations of Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) Surface Preparation (SP) 1: Solvent Cleaning. Ten they were able to use the vapor machine to achieve NACE No. 3/SSPC-SP-6: Commercial Blast Cleaning. "We had a full containment," Belisle explained of the conditions throughout the project. Tey built a containment with 6-mil (152.4 microns) poly and used staging and planks. "We were blasting at about 60 psi [413.7 kPa] because of the environment (tubes, etc.). You don't want to blast through the containment by accident or damage any of the equipment. Additionally, the low pressure helps ensure that sparks are not produced during the blasting." Because of the need to control what was — and maybe more importantly what was not — sprayed, Belisle said the blasting was a pretty slow process. "You clean what you want to clean and make sure you don't clean anything that's not supposed to be cleaned," he said. Once prepped, the crew primed everything with Tnemec's Series 1224, which was brush- and roller-applied at 4–6 mils (101.6–152.4 microns) dry flm thickness (DFT). Te 1224 is a 100 percent solids material, so mixing and spraying it at 100 square feet (9.3 m²) at a time "would be cumbersome and not cost efective," explained Belisle. Terefore, they chose to hand-apply the material. Tey accomplished this by using 4-inch (10.2 cm) W hizz rollers by Work Tools International. Te rollers were industrial grade; that helped with the high solids in the 1224 and " just the wear and tear, so they don't get ripped apart and end up in our paint," he continued. To blast, the crew wore air-supplied blast hoods by Bullard. W hile applying the primer, though, they only needed the standard gear, including safety glasses, hard hats, work boots, long pants, and ear plugs. It took them about three days each to set up, blast, prime, and clean up the four areas and work around the complex pipe confgurations. Check Yourself Monitoring was one of the main themes of this project. For one, the application took place during the months of October and November in New England, which meant working around incoming cooler weather. Because all of the coating materials were water-borne, dropping temperatures potentially posed a problem. Some days were too cold for the crew to paint outside, Belisle said. And "a very close eye had to be kept on JOB AT A GLANCE PROJECT: Provide safe-touch conditions and control condensation on two compres- sion systems at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility using insulative coatings COATINGS CONTRACTOR: John W. Egan Co., Inc P.O. Box 600070 Newtonville, MA 02460 (617) 244-6390 www.johnwegan.com SIZE OF CONTRACTOR: ~54 employees SIZE OF CREW: 2–3 crew members PRIME CLIENT: International LNG facility that wishes to remain unnamed SUBSTRATE: Steel and some ductile iron CONDITION OF SUBSTRATE: Good SIZE OF JOB: 750 sq. ft. (69.7 m²) DURATION: Little over 1 month UNUSUAL FACTORS/CHALLENGES: » The crew had to keep a close eye on the outside temperatures and dry times because the materials were water-borne and susceptible to the colder season. » The Aerolon coating is the first ever Aerogel-filled insulative coating. MATERIALS/PROCESSES: » Pre-cleaned the units to Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) Surface Preparation (SP) 1: Solvent Cleaning » Blasted the units to NACE No. 3/SSPC-SP-6: Commercial Blast Cleaning » Brush- and roller-applied Tnemec's Series 1224 primer at 4–6 mils (101.6– 152.4 microns) dry film thickness (DFT) » Spray-applied Series 971 Aerolon with a pneumatic hopper gun in 50-mil (1,270.0 microns) lifts: one lift for safe-touch system and three lifts for the condensation control system » Brush- and roller-applied Series 1028 Enduratone at 2–3 mils (50.8–76.2 microns) DFT SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS: » Waited for a client rep to monitor for gas leaks each morning while working inside the potentially explosive environment » Had background checks, badges, and tailored safety briefings » Wore air-supplied blast hoods when blasting » Wore standard gear, including safety glasses, hard hats, work boots, long pants, and ear plugs » Wore half-face respirators with organic cartridges while spraying