Thermo Electric and WEKA offer Halar coating: a new solution for corrosion protection of Visual Level Indicators (VLI) in explosion hazardous areas.
For many years Thermo Electric supplies WEKA level indicators; a reliable option for visualising the current fill level inside tanks. For some applications, the liquid to be measured can be very aggressive. A multinational Swedish company was searching solutions for a specific application in cleaning of drilling sludge on their FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading Units). The already existing design using materials in 316/316L needed to undergo a retrofit as they were corroding to fast. WEKA was chosen as the specialist to provide the adequate solution.
To insure flawless magnetic transmission, the float chamber is always made out of a non-magnetic material which in most cases is standard stainless steel alloy. These materials are generally sufficient for most applications in regards to corrosion resistance. For this special application however other materials needed to be used. Plastic level gauges were out of question due to the requirement for ATEX and higher graded nickel alloys were too high in material costs.
WEKA could provide an excellent solution with Halar coating (ECTFE) as a compromise with excellent corrosion resistance values, explosion protection compatibility and price.
Halar is resistant to organic solvents, caustic soda, hydrochloric acids, chlorine gas and others. It offers much better protection than for example Teflon (PTFE). The coating thickness is around 0.2mm only and therefore perfect to be used with standard WEKA level gauges.
Most important is however that WEKA was able to find a supplier for Halar coatings and still fulfil the requirements in accordance with 2014/34/EU (ATEX) or comparable regulations (e.g. IECEx).
This makes Halar coating a very cost-effective alternative product for highly corrosive liquids in the low pressure area including explosion protection.
For more information feel free to contact us via info@te-instrumentation.com