Australian Water Management Review Vol 1 2010 | Page 28

Vulcan Coatings
Protective Coatings need to improve
to meet the requirements of an
increasingly demanding market.
Vulcan Coatings are a specialist applicator
of high performance coatings, focusing
on protecting pipe and tank systems
against corrosion, abrasion and chemical
attack. Corrosion of ageing Water and
Chemical containment tanks is a major
problem for many industries, and many
of the traditional Epoxy and Polyurethane
products just don’t extend the life of
the tanks to justify the high expense of
rectification. Vulcan Coatings Polyurea
is changing all that, extending the life
cycle of existing plant with minimal
downtime and disruption to production.
Pipeline coating is fast become another
area of Vulcan’s specialty due to the high
demand for highly durable, chemically
resistant coatings.
Their pure polyurea product K5 was
developed to protect substrates against
extreme abrasion.
This has enormous application and has
been welcomed by pipe companies looking
for a coating that will protect pipelines
even after being subjected to the abrasion
associated with a horizontal directional
drilling process.
For example, Origin Energy faced the
challenge of running 180 metres of 100nb
HDD mild steel pipe under the Balonne
River in the Surat Basin as part of their
extensive development in this area.
This pipe needed to withstand a wide
range of corrosive and abrasive factors
including:
•

Corrosion from soil high in sulphates;

•

Abrasion from being pulled/dragged
through the HDD; and

•

Exposure to moisture as pipe runs
directly under Balonne riverbed.

Origin Energy needed to be mindful of
various impacts that this project could
have on the surrounding environment,
while also giving consideration to pastoral
and Native Title land rights in the region.
The answer to this problem, particularly
when faced with spanning the Balonne
River, was the implementation of a
horizontal direction drill (‘HDD’) creating a
curved path under the riverbed for a pipe
to follow.

Water Management Review 2010

The greatest challenge came in finding
a coating for the pipe that would protect
from corrosion, while simultaneously
being tough enough to withstand being
dragged through the HDD hole. Previous
attempts and trials had found that most
coatings were either shredded by the
dragging/pulling process, or cracked when
placed under the stresses of the curved
HDD installation.
Vulcan Coatings, a QLD based company
applied their K5 abrasion resistant Polyurea
coating to the pipe.
K5 offers a completely seamless,
monolithic coating that was originally
developed as a resilient blast resistant
polymer for use by the US Military. The
coating was applied in house and field
joints were then coated seamlessly in situ.
Critically, it was the elongation
properties of K5 Polyurea (greater than
300%) that set it apart, allo wing for the
greatest possible angle of curvature
for the pipe without compromising the
corrosive protection.
After the pipe was installed, the leading
edge was inspected and no damage was
found after traversing the 180 metres.
Electrical leakage testing carried out by
Origin Energy showed that no defects
had been sustained during the installation
process. If you are a assets manager
who is wanting the most durable system
available on the market today Vulcan
Coatings Polyurea should be your next
consideration. Be it internal or external
of containment tanks for water, food, or
chemicals. Or whether you are looking for
an alternative option to the many pipeline
coating products available, Vulcan Coatings
provide a seamless system that will
provide your assets the protection to meet
the intended design life you require.