The Project: Waste Silo

We just finished up a very interesting project, a 25 foot tall waste silo and structure, for a foreign company (local builder/fabricator). The project involved blasting, epoxy coating, and finish coating a large vessel and multiple heavy components.

1. Late Before We Even Started

We had submitted our proposal for this project a few months in advance of it’s actual start date, and we had proposed a 9 day completion for the entire project. Our direct customer was running behind on fabrication, and in typical AB&C fashion- we stepped to the plate to help them deliver on time.

II. The Process

This waste silo project was one of the most fun projects this year because of all the materials that were used. The 10.5 foot diameter X 18 foot long tank would be completely media blasted down to bare steel (SP-6 Commercial Near-White Blast) with Black Beauty, blown off completely, and then shot with a Sherwin Williams Kem Kromik Red Oxide Primer.

After priming the exterior, we grounded the tank, cleaned our hoses, blew off our feet and clothes- and crawled inside! First we striped all the hard to reach areas, because we don’t want any holidays in our primer.

Then we gave the interior a full 5-10 dry mils of Sherwin Williams MacroPoxy 646 in a seafoam green color. I actually really liked this color, but nobody else did.

Now that the largest part of the project was blasted, a primed. Time to work on the other items.

The rest of the structural steel and piping for this job was to only be blasted and primed with Sherwin Williams MacroPoxy 646- it was to be erected in the field down in Chile and finish coated on site, therefore they just needed everything primed for the long boat journey.

We also coated in safety yellow, for all the handrails on the project. This is the handrail that gets mounted onto the top of the “vessel.”

The exterior of the waste silo is now ready to receive it’s final coat, and will need to be ready to be palletized and shipped in 36 hours- so we needed something fast drying and easy to apply. Consequently, we submitted request for change of material- solely based on our timeline- to Sherwin Williams Kem 4000- Alkyd Enamel Topcoat. Material was approved, ordered, and shipped to us that day. (Worth mentioning, this paint was dry about 2 hours later- maybe sooner)

Sanded down the primer, blew the waste silo off, striped all the hard to reach areas, and shot a coat of finish enamel onto the silo.

Then we blew out the interior, and shot a finish coat of Sherwin Williams Acrolon 218 on the inside to finish it all out!

III. Ready To Ship

6 Total Days. 165 Manhours. 3 Days Early.