Sluice Gates Cleaned and Recoated

Thick coating removed from gates & flaps on sluice system

Summary

All equipment needs to be maintained regularly, especially when that equipment is subjected to the rigors of tidal waters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year non-stop. When products start to near their expected life expenditure it becomes imperative that they are replaced. In this case this client required thick coating material and various other deposits removing from sluice gates and flaps. Cleaning this flood water defence system involved removing product both above and beneath the water line and then recoating the sluice gates and flaps with the latest environmentally friendly and technically superior coating.

Challenge

• Sluice gates and flaps had a coating which was nearing the end of its practical life and had to be removed before it failed and contaminated the water course.
• Essential that no particulates were allowed to enter the water course during the remedial process.
• Access to parts of the sluice gates and flaps was restricted meaning bespoke design of specialist equipment.
• Tidal restrictions.

Solution

• As an innovative specialist cleaning contractor Tube Tech were able to offer a wide range of coating removal techniques including Nitroblast™ – a revolutionary liquid nitrogen blasting system and SafeJet™ – Tube Tech’s unique ultra high pressure water jetting system.
• Tube Tech manufactured bespoke equipment for the difficult access areas e.g. behind the “I” beams.
• A specially designed floating access platform was also used to access the underside of the flaps.
• All areas of the sluice gates and flaps were cleaned back to bare metal.
• Working closely with both the paint manufacturer and asset owners a high performance glass flake system was recommended and subsequently approved then applied which gave the desired maintenance periods and life expectancy of 25 years.
• During both the preparation and coating the paint manufacturer monitored and inspected all aspects of the project from climatic conditions, wet film thickness and finally the dry film thickness

Tube Tech comment

Gareth Gillings Technical Sales: “Despite the number of difficult to access areas our bespoke SafeJet™ system was manipulated to remove the aged coating taking the sluice gates and flaps back to original profile. The new coating was successfully applied, our client was pleased with our attention to detail and the way in which the contract was managed.”

Clients can be contacted via Tube Tech for references.

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