Case Study Overview

Site Production facility
Location United States
Repair Type Leak repair
Defect Leaking cooling tower in HVAC system

Repair Products

Superfast Aqua PW Epoxy Putty,
Industrial Metal Rapid Epoxy Paste

Case Study PDF

Case Study Details

Temperature control at the production facility was provided by a HVAC system. Water which had absorbed heat from inside the building was pumped to a cooling tower located on the roof.

This warmed water was exposed to air inside the tower, leading to heat being rejected into the atmosphere via evaporation. The re-cooled water was then pumped back into the building and the whole process repeated.

After water was seen leaking from the cooling tower, the HVAC system was shut off, and the tower drained and accessed. A long crack was discovered in the floor, with significant amounts of concrete either side having crumbled away.

With the effectiveness of the HVAC system determined by the amount of water cooled, any loss from the tower through leakage was extremely damaging to efficiency.

The manufacturer of the HVAC system admitted they had never seen a fault like this before. Several repair attempts were made using their normal tried-and-tested methods, but these failed before they contacted a Sylmasta distributor for advice.

Because the tower floor was still saturated with water, Superfast Aqua PW Epoxy Putty was used to fill the crack. Superfast Aqua PW is specially formulated for high underwater adhesion.

Whereas other repair compounds might have struggled to form an effective bond, Aqua PW easily adhered to the wet concrete.

After the surface had been prepared via grinding with an abrasive disc, the putty was mixed by hand and forced into the crack. It hardened within 20 minutes, curing to form a solid material which sealed along the entire leak area.

With the leak sealed, attention turned to repairing the significant damage left where the concrete floor had crumbled away, using Industrial Metal Rapid 5 Minute Epoxy Paste.

Industrial Metal Rapid was chosen for its fast 60-minute functional cure time, which would enable the cooling tower to go back into service more quickly than if standard grade Industrial Metal were used.

The epoxy paste was mixed using a putty knife before being used to rebuild the missing floor around the crack. It filled the damaged area with a smooth, metallic-like material offering excellent corrosion resistance to further enhance the sealing power of Aqua PW.

Within three hours of the leaking cooling tower repair starting, the HVAC system was operating at full efficiency again. Impressed by the ease and speed of the repair, the HVAC manufacturer is now using Sylmasta products for a wider range of applications in the USA.

Products Used

Superfast Aqua PW
Epoxy putty with specialist formulation for high-strength adhesion to wet surfaces

Industrial Metal Rapid
Epoxy paste with 60-minute functional cure for quickly rebuilding large areas of damage

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