Cell House Parking Lot PVC Liners

An innovative lining solution used to protect eroded concrete in a zinc recycling cell house.

PROJECT DETAILS

  • INDUSTRY: Zinc Processing Plant
  • LOCATION: North Carolina
  • YEAR: 2023
  • FOR MORE INFORMATION: Reference job S22-039

The issue with concrete in extremely acidic environments

In a zinc recycling cell house, plates are dipped into liquid electrolyte process using an overhead crane. Then they are pulled out to dry over a concrete structure often called a “parking lot”. Concrete is extremely durable to everyday wear and tear. Although, it’s not designed to hold up in the harsh, corrosive environment that a process like this presents.

In this cell house, the years of constant saturation of liquid electrolyte had eroded the concrete parking lot structures. In some areas the rebar was even exposed. Also, the pad and the side walls that were constructed with concrete masonry units had major failures starting to take place. This could have led to a catastrophic failure if the degradation of the concrete were to continue. In this unique situation, the plant was only able to shut down their operations for two, 6-hour windows to fix this problem on both units.

Challenges like this are nothing out of the norm for Universal Blastco. When the plant brought the issue to our team, with the timeframe allowed, we both knew that repairing the concrete properly would not be an option. So rather than repairing the concrete, we developed a solution to, at least, stop further degradation and protect the concrete so the plant could continue operating. This solution will help them get by until they are able to completely shut down for a full outage, allowing them to make a permanent concrete repair. 

eroded concrete in a cell house

Engineering a solution

We explored many options that would hold up to the chemical exposure, but also provide a non-slip surface for when employees wash the surface down. The design we chose was a flexible PVC cover and wall-hung system that could be supplied where 70% of it could be prefabricated, and the rest could be installed within our given 6-hour window. We partnered  with the creative team at Witt Lining Systems to develop the solution for this project. They created a custom product line of material just for this application, now called SpectraTread, which has a slip-proof tread on their proprietary Koroseal PVC material.

The PVC  “Parking lot” cover was fabricated into six pieces. The cover for the top was fully fabricated in the shop prior to arriving at the jobsite. This made it efficient to install after laying it out and lifting it into place using the facilities overhead crane. The wall panels came in 10’ tall panels that were field seamed together using hot air welders and wedge rollers. It also had to be cut to fit around supporting wall beam seats that were permanently in place. To hang the wall panels, we installed PVC compression strips and mechanically fastened the liner with stainless steel 4” Tapcon anchors.

The plant was pleased with the result, our partnership, the solution, and safe installation. This innovative approach demonstrates our expertise and commitment to finding effective solutions for the EXACT and unique needs of industrial processing facilities!

pvc liner on a cell house parking lot

 

ABOUT UNIVERSAL BLASTCO:

In addition to linings, Universal Blastco specializes in coatings and linings, industrial masonry using brick, block and tile, fiberglass, concrete restoration and other industrial corrosion services. Request your quote here, email blastco@isginc.us or call 803-773-6388.

ABOUT WITT LINING SYSTEMS:

“We can line anything” is their motto, and we at Universal Blastco can attest to that! Their proprietary line of PVC lining solutions are built to hold up in the most extreme environments and applications in industrial settings. Visit https://wittliners.com/ to learn more!

pvc liner on a cell house parking lot

pvc liner protecting eroding concrete in a cell house

a pvc liner being installed on a wall of a cell house concrete parking lot

eroded concrete in a cell house

eroded concrete on a cell house parking lot

a closeup of severely eroded concrete