High visibility and low maintenance were two reasons why a fluoropolymer coating system from Tnemec was chosen for a new 250,000 gallon water tank along a well-traveled interstate in Twiggs County, Georgia. “The engineer on the project needed the best available coating system because of the tank’s close proximity to Interstate 16 outside of Macon,” explained Tnemec coating consultant Dean Drehoff. “He needed a coating system that would extend the maintenance life cycle while retaining its high gloss and color.”
Both interior and exterior steel was shop-primed with Series 91-H2O Hydro-Zinc, a two-component, moisture-cured zinc-rich urethane, which was the first organic zinc-rich primer to be ANSI/NSF Std. 61 certified for use in potable water. Hydro-Zinc offers superior bonding to steel surfaces that are abrasive blast cleaned in accordance with SSPC-SP10 Near-White Blast Cleaning and SSPC-SP6 Commercial Blast Cleaning.
For the tank’s interior, the field applicator spray-applied two coats of Series 20 Pota-Pox, a polyamide epoxy. Series 20 has been an industry standard for potable water epoxy coatings for 30 years.
Exterior steel received a roller-applied intermediate coat of Series 73 Endura-Shield, an aliphatic acrylic polyurethane, followed by a finish coat of Series 700 HydroFlon, a fluoropolymer polyurethane, also roller-applied. HydroFlon provides outstanding resistance to ultraviolet light degradation, abrasion and chalking.
“This is the best air-dried, gloss-and color-retention coating system in the marketplace today,” according to Drehoff. “With this exterior coating system, Tnemec issued a 15-year gloss and color retention warranty to the owner. It’s unusual for coating companies to extend long-term warranties like that, but Tnemec does it on this system.”
The tank features the county’s name in black letters against a white background. “This is one of the most attractive tanks I’ve ever seen,” Drehoff added. “It’s a white tank and really shines.”
Twiggs County, which is the geographic center of Georgia, is part of the Macon metropolitan statistical area.