Ocean Products Seychelles Ltd

Ocean Products Seychelles Ltd who operates a fish oil extraction plant in the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles had been looking for a company who could offer both a supply and an installation service for the refurbishment of their factory workshop building. The building in question was a large insulated refrigeration unit building within an existing factory building. It was constructed from insulation panels of PUR foam laminated with steel sheets on both sides. The materials for the construction of the factory were supplied by Blue Star cold room systems. The steel surface is finished with powder coating, white in colour.

The factory building was situated indoors and located 100 metres from the dockside. Ambient temperatures are in the region of 34-40 deg Celsius on the exterior and an internal operating temperature of 22oC. Temperatures on the roof of the factory building, under the metal roof of the fishmeal factory building, could reach temperatures in excess of 50oC. The climatic conditions are therefore tropical, in a marine, industrial environment.

After 4 years of service it had become necessary to repair and refinish the factory and workshop walls and ceiling as part of their ongoing maintenance plan.

As part of this process they had to find solutions to a number of problem areas and at the same time ensure that they have a long term, durable solution that fulfils EU and/or FDA food industry standards and requirements. All materials used must be certified as compliant to these norms.

Including the following criteria and descriptions of the performance characteristics of the coating system.

1. Adherence to the existing, powder coated, panels on walls and ceiling

2. Resistance to fish oil and fish oil vapours which are acidic in nature

3. Resistant to our cleaning chemicals, notably Sodium Hydroxide (HD FOAM Diversey Lever)

4. Corrosion protection in the humid environment (up to 80 %)

5. Physical resistance to the action of high pressure washing jets (40bars)

6. Adherence to the concrete bases of our wall panels

They had contacted several companies in South Africa, the United States and in Europe. Although some of these companies were willing to sell them materials, none were able to supply the installation service and level of technical support they required as well.

The owners of the factory needed to bring the building up to European and/or FDA food industry production hygiene standards and they needed a company with experience of working on overseas projects and who were able of offer the supply, service and installation of the materials.

All works had to be completed with a two week maintenance shutdown period.

The problems

The Roof (but inside of a building with a leaking roof)

The roof of the main, external, factory building was made from metal sheets which leaked. Over a period of time the roof of our client’s building had sagged and when it rained a considerable amount of water coming in through the leaking factory roof, had started to come through the roof panel joints and numerous service ducts causing the underside of the panels (internal surfaces) to start rusting.

The factory maintenance engineers had tried various things over the years on the roof to stop the ingress of water, including applications of silicon adhesive and aluminium backed bitumen tape. None of these remedies had worked.

There were 15mm to 20mm wide gaps running along two long sections of the roof at junctions with a wall.

Internal Surfaces

There were various areas of serious corrosion taking place in several places inside the building either as a result of the ingress of water or from poor workmanship when the building was constructed or a combination of both. One corner within the building was particularly bad.

The main internal walls and ceiling surfaces were difficult to keep clean and the joints between the panels were open in many places, were equally difficult to clean.

They required a method of repairing and sealing the joints between panels and the joint at the interface of the wall panels and the concrete bases. In a number of areas these joints have become corroded and there was a problem of water entry.

There was a roughly cut out opening for a ventilation fan that had been left with jagged rough metal edges and exposed insulation foam. There were approximately 120 holes, 20mm, through the walls in various places. The main surfaces of the internal wall and ceiling panels were difficult to keep clean.

Water from the external washing down and cleaning of conveyor belts leaked into the laboratory through the window frame and the base of the walls which were starting to corrode.The laboratory floor looked unsightly and was difficult to clean. The overall surface area to be treated was approximately 489m2.

Our Solution

Roof Panels - Remove all traces of the silicon adhesive and aluminium backed bitumen tape. Clean, prime and in-fill and sealed all accessible joints and voids with a fully elastomeric polyurethane expansion joint filler which provided a smooth seamless waterproof joint with the properties of an 520% Elongation at Break (DIN 53455) and designed to withstand the anticipated movement of the roof.

Corrosion Areas

Manually clean areas of heavy rusting and severe corrosion with wire brushes and scrapers and apply two coats of a special rust converting zinc based epoxy primer. Fill voids with a flexible epoxy resin joint filler paste/putty.

Internal Surfaces

Fill internal wall and ceiling panel joints with a flexible epoxy resin joint filler/putty. Walls and Ceiling Coat all internal walls with multiple applications of an easy to clean food grade solvent free epoxy resin coating system to give a seamless hygienic finish.

Laboratory Walls

After cleaning areas of corrosion, apply a rust converting epoxy resin primer

Window Frame

Seal window frame joints with a flexible epoxy resin joint filler/putty. Apply multiple applications of an easy to clean food grade solvent free epoxy resin coating.

Laboratory Floor

After cleaning and degreasing. Abrade the surface and install an easy to clean, seamless, self-smoothing epoxy resin flooring system.

Being an independent company we were able to select the most suitable materials for the project and for the working conditions in the Seychelles. For this project we sourced materials from several different companies. Due to time restraints we had all the materials and equipment that we needed sent out as an airfreight consignment.

We sent out to the Seychelles a complete package of all materials, tools and equipment necessary to carry out the work, approximately 1,000kg. The only thing that we did not send was solvent for tool cleaning.
We sent out to the Seychelles a team of two technicians and used, under our supervision, local labour from the factory for the surface preparation and application works.

All the treatment areas were high pressure hot detergent cleaned and/or solvent washed before abrading and applying the coating materials.All equipment and machinery within the factory were protected with plastic sheeting prior to the start of the works.The works were carried out as detailed above in Our Solution.

The temperature while working on some sections of the roof was estimated at being approximately 45oC and 100% humidity. Due to the temperatures we were encountered in the Seychelles we had to carry out “On Site” modifications to the formulation of some of the materials to make them work in the climatic conditions there.

Upon completion of our works we were able to leave on site for our client a small quantity of materials, sufficient for them to carry out their minor maintenance repairs should it become necessary.
Apart from a couple of items all tools and equipment that we had taken to the Seychelles were left on site for the client to use after we left. The staff “volunteered” by the factory to help with this project were really excellent and it was a pleasure to work with them.

The job went well and was completed on time, which meant we were able to have a few days on the beach before returning to the UK.

Copyright © 2001 Peter Lambert-Gorwyn. All rights reserved.