In the City of St. Robert, Missouri, public works Director Steve Long has created a variation of the advertising slogan “Put a Tiger in Your Tank” by putting a tiger on a 250,000-gallon elevated water storage tank using an advanced technology fluoropolymer coating system from Tnemec. “The director of public works for the City of St. Robert personally laid out the tank’s tiger stripe design,” Tnemec coating consultant Scott Keilbey acknowledged. “He did a great job with the design dimensionally. The orange and black motif with the message, ‘St. Robert is Tiger Country,’ reflects community pride in the Waynesville High School mascot and colors.”
The project involved a complete recoat of the tank’s exterior and interior. Exterior steel was prepared in accordance SSPC-SP6/NACE No. 3 Commercial Blast Cleaning and primed with Series 94-H2O Hydro-Zinc, a single-component, moisture-cured, aromatic zinc-rich urethane. An intermediate coat of Series 73 Endura-Shield, an acrylic polyurethane, was applied over the primer to provide additional film thickness for corrosion resistance. The finish coat, Series 700 HydroFlon, is an advanced fluoropolymer that offers outstanding resistance to ultraviolet (UV) light degradation providing unprecedented long-term gloss and color retention.
Interior steel was prepared in accordance with SSPC-SP10/NACE No. 2 Near-White Metal Blast Cleaning and primed with Series 94-H2O Hydro-Zinc, followed by two coats of Series N140 Pota-Pox Plus, a polyamidoamine epoxy. Both Series 94-H2O and Series N140 are certified in accordance with NSF/ANSI Standard 61 for use on interior potable water tanks.
“What really makes this project unique is the fact that the artwork was designed by the director of public works for St. Robert,” Keilbey explained. “Typically, an engineering firm or the contractor will be asked to provide examples of artwork from graphic artists, but he created three designs for Ozark Applicators, which helped him select the one that would look the best. The city officials were thrilled with the craftsmanship of Ozark Applicators, which is dedicated to quality workmanship and longevity of its water tank renovations.”
Long also designed artwork for a legged water tank near Fort Leonard Wood military base located on the southern boundary of St. Robert. “The patriotic design in red, white and blue was shown to base commanders who liked the artwork and gave it their approval,” Keilbey added.
The intricate graphic design of the St. Robert tiger tank resulted in its selection as a runner-up in Tnemec’s 2011 Tank of the Year competition.