Solutions Ahead Blog

We’ve written in the past about How Glass-Lined Vessels are Made, as well as What is Reglassing and How it Can Work for You.  We’ve even taken you through the Steps for Sending your Vessels in for Reglassing.  But what exactly happens to your vessel once it arrives at our facility? 

Halloween may be over, but we still thought it would be a good time to ressurrect an old post of ours about reglassing, especially since we recently published a new Introduction to Reglassing brochure.  It's a great resource to learn more about the subject and how it can help bring new life to your old, used, or damaged glass-lined steel equipment.  

Glass-lined steel reactors are a substantial investment for any company to make, so it’s not the kind of equipment you want to simply discard once it becomes old or inoperative.  Most likely, you are using glass-lined equipment because your process requires a high level of corrosion resistance or other unique property that only glass lining can provide.  But after years of service (the number of years can vary greatly depending on the service conditions), your vessel will eventually require some sort of refurbishment.  Damage from mechanical or thermal shock can also prematurely cause your vessel to be out of commission, but in most cases when operating guidelines are followed, normal wear and tear will be the cause of erosion to the glass lining.

The cool, crisp, October air coupled with the beautiful fall foliage can make this one of the loveliest times of year (that is, if you are fortunate to live in an area that offers the splendors of the season).  With Halloween just around the corner, autumn is also the best time of year for people to enjoy a good fright. Whether it’s watching classic horror movies where victims repeatedly make the same common senseless, life-threatening mistakes (What are you doing?!  Don’t go back in the house!!!) or standing at your front door for hours on end doling out candy to dozens of little girls all dressed as a certain “frozen” snow queen, everyone has a different idea as to what is scary (you might be surprised just how scary the latter can be).  So when you look at the image above you may have a different reaction than I do.

At some point, the addition of more plugs, patches or sleeves to your glass-lined vessel becomes uneconomical, or results in a repair of questionable integrity.  When you’ve reached this stage in the lifecycle of your equipment it’s time to consider replacement or refurbishment.  In last week’s post, we talked about reglassing – what it is, the advantages it offers over buying new equipment, and how it is performed.  (If you are unfamiliar with reglassing, we suggest you read that article first to get up to speed on this service and how it could apply to your equipment.)  All glass-lined reactors, tanks, columns, and accessories such as covers, agitators and baffles, can be reglassed if the steel substrate is in good or repairable condition.  Once you’ve decided that your equipment is a candidate for reglassing these are the steps you should following for preparing your equipment to send in for service:

There are many things in life that are just not worth fixing.  Your old or damaged glass-lined reactor doesn’t have to be one of them.  Depending on the service conditions, some vessels can last for years and years without any issues of erosion to the glass lining.  Other, more corrosive services can erode their way through a reactor’s glass-lining in six months while others can destroy the glass lining in a year or two, leaving a virtually new vessel unusable. Mechanical and thermal shock can also account for damage that could render a vessel unusable.