SITUATION
A maintenance contractor located in Texas had a contract to maintain a thermal oxidizer for the incineration of explosives, rocket propelled missiles and other munitions that have expired dates on their use.
The end user discovered a 1-inch wide crack in the oxidizer that needed to be repaired immediately. They have a maintenance technician who has been trained by the manufacturer and performed internal repairs on this component previously, but they did not have any repair material on hand. The manufacturer is in Europe, and it was going to take too long to get repair materials from them. The contractor reached out to Christy to see if we could offer a rapid solution.
SOLUTION
We could see from photos that they had shrinkage of the blanket in many spots. We recommended some moldable AR and SuperWool Sealcoat products, which would provide a quick fix to hold them over and prevent any loss of time until they could do a complete repair during a shutdown scheduled later in the fall.
They accepted our recommendation, and within a day, we expedited them to the end user’s site. They quickly began the repairs by coating the KaoWool with Moldable AR and stuffing it into the cracks. They then filled in the remaining gaps with the SuperWool Sealcoat and then applied the moldable AR back over the top for a tight and smooth finish.
IMPACT
After the repairs were made, they brought the unit back online at 2000*F for two weeks before they brought the unit down to check the durability of the repair. They were happy to report that it was still solid with no issues. The customer said the support and recommendations from Christy Refractories saved them thousands of dollars, and they were be able to properly use the unit until their next scheduled shutdown.