SA company manufactures tank for Asia

2nd August 2013

  

Font size: - +

South African tank design and installation company Steelfab Water Solutions Africa completed the installation of a two-million-litre poly- vinyl-chloride- (PVC-) lined panel Aquadome water storage reservoir in Subic Bay, in the Philippines, in March.

The reservoir is backed by the company’s ten-year pro rata warranty that covers both parts and labour.

The reservoirs are manufactured from 1 mm BlueScope Zincalume steel, which makes the tank walls up to 40% thicker than many other tanks on the market. The quality and thickness of the steel removes the need for sacrificial anodes, which often have to be replaced yearly.

The wall panels for the Aquadome range of reservoirs are bolted together with 8.8-tensile-strength bolts and nuts in a brick and bond configuration to increase strength.

The Aquadome range, says Steelfab Water Solutions Africa’s webpage, was introduced as a low-profile tank designed to be lower than the roof of a house, so rainfall could be easily collected.

Further, the company’s in-house-manufactured PVC liners are certified and passed to international AS/NZS 4020 drinking water standards. The PVC liners are flexible and are 1.8 times the strength of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which are commonly used to manufacture other water storage tanks.

PVC takes higher and lower temperatures than HDPE and LDPE, and is the only material that truly welds together. The weld penetrates through the material, not just the top surfaces, as with layered material.

PVC is permanently repairable, wet or dry, without special tools. Any leakage can be repaired without losing water. The PVC liner eliminates a common stress factor that is usually associated with nonflexible liner materials. The PVC liners that were manufac- tured for the panel reservoir of two-million litres are up to 33 m in diameter, with the highest reservoir to date being 13.48 m.

Type 0.55 potable aquatex PVC and type 0.8 duplex stable PVC are used for the manufacturing of PVC liners for water tanks, explains Steelfab Water Solutions Africa.

Potable water tank liners are constructed of 0.55-mm-thick PVC material, made espe- cially for harsh climate conditions. It is tougher than any other PVC on the market, and will still stretch but is not prone to shrinking, as all soft compounds are. It is also harder to puncture and it can be repaired under water.

Meanwhile, ultraviolet- (UV-) stable material is used when the UV exposure is high or the tank is in harsh environments. It is not suitable for storing potable water. As a laminated product, it is strong and hard-wearing.

Steelfab Water Solutions Africa is a joint venture (JV) established to operate from the manufacturing platform created by Johannesburg Foundry, Sinvac Plastics, Techniloy Piping and Sinvac Mining. The South African company has been in a JV with Western Australia-based Steelfab Water Solutions since 2007. Steelfab Water Solutions Africa designs and installs Australian award winning water and storage tanks. Sizes range from 9 235 ℓ up to and in excess of five-million litres. “Our new export factory based in Subic Bay, in the Philippines, is the most up-to-date tank manufacturing factory in the world and is ISO 9002 compliant,” says the company’s webpage.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION