A vent block sealer has been developed to assist coal mines to seal ventilation walls and air-crossings.
The ventilation walls in a mine are usually made of concrete hollow blocks, clay bricks and corrugated iron sheets. The styrene acrylic copolymer sealer addresses the challenge of hollow blocks and joints in walls.
The sealer can be used to seal any porous substrate and it can bridge gaps of up to 1 mm in magnitude.
“The conventional use of a bitumen emulsion paint-on application product had proved to be very labour-intensive and costly,” says CHRYSO new business manager Frans Bakselerowicz. “By contrast, the CHRYSO Vent Block Sealer is an easy spray-on product, using a knapsack pump which does not need any compressed air to spray. This allows its application even in back‑areas of a mine, where there are no electrical and compressed air services available.”
Any larger crack or hole can be repaired with paintable flashing tape and then sprayed over. In high leakage areas, a second coat can be applied if required.
The sealer is non-flammable and non-toxic, making it suitable for applications in hazardous areas. It dries within 30 to 45 minutes above ground and in two hours underground.
In addition, the sealer is water soluble to facilitate cleaning of equipment and it is cream in colour, allowing users to identify which areas of the grey ventilation walls have been treated.