PAINT REMOVAL FOR LONDON RAIL BRIDGE

Ultra-High Pressure Water Jetting is able to remove high percentages of soluble salts from steel surfaces without generating spent abrasives, which can be costly to dispose of. The higher the pressures used the less water is needed. The process warms the surface being treated, which allows the water to dry quickly without generating sufficient heat to cause thermal stresses in steel surfaces. As well as removing soluble salts, this environmentally friendly process also lifts rust, old paint and coatings from a surface.

Surface preparation is an important step for a range of materials ahead of coating, welding, and other processes.

There are a range of different techniques that range in effectiveness and cost. Generally speaking, the more complete the cleaning, the more expensive the technique. In some cases, several surface preparation techniques need to be combined, such as through the use of solvent cleaning to remove oils ahead of abrasive cleaning, followed by jet washing to remove left-over dust particles.

UHP surface preparation is an important technique for paint and coatings to adhere to a sound surface, which includes degreasing, rust removal and other contaminants.

Our team visited a Rail Bridge in London with a scope to remove 70m2 of surface painted coating from a rail bridge steel parapet wall over two visits.

The operatives accessed the jetting location from trackside within a weekend rail closure using TVP passes. The nature of the work and location required the team to utilise one of our UHP tanker-based jetting units. As other working activities were known to be taking place taking place, the client requested booking the team in for two visits to complete the work.

Access to the work face was achieved using a scaffold tower – built to the correct height and distance from the work face for the operatives to complete the paint removal using a UHP rotary nozzle. Our client had labour ready for when the tower required to be stripped and moved across as the work progressed which ensured the work planned for each visit to be completed on time.

First visit went well with the team now programmed to return for the final visit to the west parapet wall to complete the job.to