Corrosion & Mechanical Protection – ViscoWrap

Problem

This 24″ and 8″ line on a terminal was experiencing severe corrosion from coating damage due to marine debris being frequently washed on the tidal zones.

Conditions

The line operates at 18.3 Bar at 60 °C and this terminal is always busy with ships coming in, making it a hassle to perform repair on the line whenever its being used.

Solution

The first step in the repair process is to complete surface preparation on the most severe sections using an engineered composite repair system. Severe corroded areas were hand prepared to determine the extent of the damage, before grit blasting to SA2.5 bare white metal. Next, the defects were coated using a high-compression strength filler which provides load-transfer. Epoxy primer was applied over the entire repair area providing a corrosion protection barrier and locking out any environmental atmospheric condition. A chemically resistant engineered carbon fiber composite system was then applied per scope. Client opted for unique viscoelastic tape wrap system with a MCU UV resistance wrap which provides the required mechanical protection against impact from floating debris.

Results

The timing for this repair is critical, and the engineered composite solution was applied in a couple of hours while the line is unused. The unique surface tolerant viscoelastic coating eliminates the requirement for tedious surface preparation (on existing coating yet provides 100% adhesion and encapsulation against water and gas.  This allows for this tape wrap system to be applied while ships were in the terminal with the pipeline in use, with no disruption to ship schedules.