Although it’s best for corrosion resistance, rotolining is limited by equipment size and weight.
Our RMB team is back on the trade show circuit where we can talk to our customers face to face and learn firsthand what their preferences are for lined equipment. It’s inspiring to see that we have a loyal following and can learn what our chemical processing customers think about our products and company. For them, rotolining is a superior technology compared to sheet lining, glass lining, and metal cladding. Unlike other approaches, rotational lining creates a highly prized thick, seamless, and tightly bonded lining of protective material on process vessels and pipes.
The process employs thermoplastic resins and heat to create a long-lasting liner. While the vessel is heated, the equipment is rotated to evenly spread the polymeric coating on the vessel interior.
Size limits of rotational lining
Of course, like any engineering option, there are limitations. The main limitation for rotolining is size. The process requires the vessel to fit inside an oven. Based on the size of our ovens, RMB can rotationally line straight lengths of pipe up to 20 feet long and process vessels that will fit within a 10-foot sphere.
Weight limitations of rotolining
Another limitation is weight. RMB has three machines used for rotolining vessels with protective polymer coatings, such as ETFE, HDPE, RMB BIO-ARMOR™, and PVDF.
- Our largest machine, unimaginatively named Machine #1, can line vessels up to 11 feet, 8 ¼ inches wide that are as tall as 11 feet, 4 ½ inches. It has a weight limit of 5,000 pounds, which may be the governing factor for what can be lined.
- Machine #5 is smaller but mighty. It can accommodate objects up to 6,000 pounds. It handles sizes up to 8 feet, 4 inches in diameter and 7 feet, 9 inches tall.
- Our Rock-N-Roll machine is a bit of a rebel. It can line equipment 20 feet in length and up to 60 inches in diameter, with a weight capacity of 5,000 pounds.
Instead of rotating 360 degrees on two axes like our other machines, the Rock-N-Roll machine tips back and forth while it rotates axially. It is ideal for tall and thin objects, like separation columns and filtration columns whose internal structures make them difficult and costly to sheet line.
PFA lining limits
Also, RMB can use these machines to line equipment with PFA, a polymer coating able to handle high-heat process applications up to 500 degrees F. While this is an RMB-exclusive capability, the shrink properties of PFA limit its application to objects up to 100 inches long and 24 inches in diameter.
Rotolining pipes for corrosion protection
Routinely we line pipes up to 20 feet long, especially large nonstandard pipes of 10 to 24 inches in diameter. At standard pipe sizes, premolded PTFE inserts are more cost effective.
See a video of a 30-inch diameter pipe elbow being lined with HPDE.
Go the distance for highly effective corrosion protection
The final limitation is distance. We do our work in a factory located in Colorado. Unless we are fabricating your vessel from scratch, you need to ship your equipment to us for lining. Many customers find the transportation costs are well worth the results and ship their equipment from as far away as Europe.
Rotolining lasts four to eight times longer than sheet lining, preserving their considerable investment in the equipment. A longer service life also reduces maintenance costs. On top of that, the reliability of a rotolined lining minimizes the environmental risks associated with a liner failure.
Once your vessel arrives at our dock, we quickly move it into production and ship the lined equipment back to you. We understand the high cost of downtime, and that’s why we are set up to provide quick turnaround times to our customers. We’ve heard stories that, even with shipping, our installation is faster than hand welding PTFE sheets on large vessels having complex geometries and large diameters. These include manifolds, headers, and columns with multiple ports and manways.
If you can ship it, and if it can fit in our oven, then chances are good that rotolining is the best engineering solution to provide long-lasting corrosion protection for your industrial process vessels.
Learn more
Contact us to find out if we can meet your rotolining needs.
