Industrial painting projects in the winter are limited.
Firstly, a lot of paints, such as epoxies and urethanes, are difficult to apply in temperatures below 50 degrees. The have a higher viscosity, making the application process a burden, and they take a longer time to cure, due to the cold weather. But not only does the material present a problem, accessing the substrates outdoors can also be problematic. Cold weather can affect the applicators performance, and if there is a large accumulation of snowfall, then there is issues with mobility.
Because industrial painting proves to offer seasonal limitations, it is important to value your service for interior projects. Recently, PennCoat was able to provide interior painting for one of that areas largest food manufacturers. Their existing ceiling was showing signs of corrosion. So, they had requested a new industrial coating be applied over the rust, to prevent any rust from polluting the product.
The first step of the project was to prepare the substrate. Indoor painting projects can be alot more challenging, because they require the same prep as exterior projects. And this situation was no different. The room housed large industrial kettles that was used to cook the product. These kettles would emit large clouds of steam that, over time, accelerated the corrosion, and even applied sections of grease on the ceiling. That grease would need to be removed by hot water detergent cleaning. The water would have devastating effects to all the electronics and equipment in the room. So it was vital that everything was covered and protected in plastic.
Once the equipment was covered in plastic, we were able to spray the detergent against the ceiling, allowing it to dwell, and then rinse it with hot water power washer. This was adequate cleaning method that removed the rust and grease from the corrugated ceiling.
Another consideration that needed to be made was the selection of the paint. Most industrial structures, such as corrugated ceilings, have a factory finish oil paint. Oil paints can be problematic, in that other paints don’t bond to them as well. So we went with an elastomeric paint. The beauty of the elastomeric paint is that it won’t flake off the substrate in chips, similar to oil paints. Instead, when a selection disbonds from the substrate, it still has enough clinging power to remain intact with the surrounding elastomeric coating. This is a huge selling point to the food manufacturer, because this would eliminate the possibility of paint chips contaminating the consumable product. The elastomeric coating is applied with a sprayer, and needs to go on at 28mils wet. It has a dry film thickness of 14mils.
Another additional benefit to this specific elastomeric is that it offers rust-inhibitors. The rust inhibitors will prevent further bleeding or rust through the elastmoric coating.
In conclusion, even during the winter months, there is still plenty of industrial painting to be completed, regardless of the difficulty of surface preparation that these areas may require.