MODUL filed an application to patent a new way to restore and protect the inner surface of tank-container vessels

   Chemical and petrochemical products prevail in the structure of products transported in tank-containers – they amount to 80% of all tank-container traffic, and together with liquid mineral fertilizers come up to 85%. Contact of metal, from which tanks are made of, with the air coupled with even a moderately aggressive substance, always causes changes in chemical composition of the metal, which leads to degradation of vessels and significantly reduces the claimed tank container service life.

   Nowadays, tank containers affected by corrosion are repaired with use of electric welding methods (machining, finishing), the disadvantage of which is the change in the structure of the chemical composition of the metal in the weld-affected zone, which leads to more intensive destruction of the surface during subsequent operation. In addition, this method causes serious damage to the environment.

   The methods of build-up welding or surfacing (i.e. applying the molten metal of required composition on a surface heated up to melting point) are not applicable for the repair of surface of tank vessels, since they involve heating of the vessel shell above the design temperature.

   MODUL specialists have developed, successfully tested and certified a fundamentally different way to protect the metal from further corrosive destruction, to preserve and even improve the chemical composition of the vessel surface.

   The new technology – a chemical method of recovery and protection – involves diffusing of a special chemical solution into the pores of the inner surface of the vessel, which covers the surface with a single layer and upgrades the purity of roughness smoothing voids up to 400 microns.

  The peculiarity and the main advantage of this method are the uniform thickness and continuous layer deposition on the textured surface of metal, which allows to completely preclude corrosion on the inner surface of the vessel and to extend the service life of tank containers.