Chemical Containment
Chemical containment
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Pro plastic welding was glad to join up with a local gas equipment team to create a custom solution to their secondary containment needs. Professional plastic welding was able to lead this project from conception to full scale manufacturing.
Let’s get started
Our customer reached out to us needing a more economical solution to their secondary containment needs, without compromising the quality and safety of the worksite. Over the course of the next couple of weeks we were able to select a material that would be safe to use in the different environments it would be exposed to. PE100 and other polyethylene materials are used in the oil and gas industry as a cheaper alternative to steel.
Designing
Now that we have our carefully chosen materials in mind, we are now able to start the design process. We had to start designing each tank style based off the main containment tank. In this case we are dealing with a 1000-gallon tank. According to federal, state and EPA standards we had to be able to fill the tank to 110% percent capacity to be within the standards. Professional plastic welders were able to quickly get a basic design knocked out withing a couple days. After the basic design was approved, we were able to move on to designing the proper engineering controls so the tank would be stable under a full load. This included the addition of gussets on the interior and exterior walls. We additionally added an encapsulated stainless-steel band around the tank for extra wall support. We had to design everything with the ability to move since thermoplastics have a higher rate of thermal expansion compared to steel. What this involves is calculating how much the linear expansion would be for each side of the tank and making sure we have engineered enough expansion and retraction in the design, so we don’t have any buckling issues between materials. Once we had those elements designed in our design, we were able to move this to a simulation and test our hydro static values out. This is a simple test in simulation that allows us to fill our tank with a fluid equal or greater to in density than the material that might be stored in the tank and see how the tank reacts to the pressures and where the potential failure points may be. After we reworked the tank until we were in a very safe margin of error, we were able to move to quoting the prototype project.
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Quoting and building the prototype
Now that we have our design finished, we were able to move forward in getting the customer a quote for the prototype and pricing for a continued manufacturing basis. Pro plastic welders were able to get this done quickly using our industry partners who can source large amounts of material quickly. Our customer accepted the quote, and we were able to get materials ordered and start the building process.
Utilizing a mixture of CNC equipment, hand fabrication and extrusion welding using our Weldplast S2 PVC by leister (extrusion welder) pro plastic welders were able to knock this build out in 4 weeks of the Po issuance. The last step in building any tank that will be filled with fluid is to do a hydro static test by filling the tank to the max fill and making sure over a period of time that there are no leaks. Our customer needed this delivered from our shop to there’s 70 miles away and we had no problem getting it to them when they needed it.
Installation and monitoring
Our customer was responsible for the installation of this containment, so we were not able to be on the worksite. They have reported multiple times over the past year that we have created a successful replacement part that is working for their needs. The end customer is also pleased with the durability of the new material and the look of the finished product. As of recent we have completed manufacturing on another tank on the field and getting feedback on that so we can make changes if needed.
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