TECHNOLOGY
Blasting
Water jetting can also be used to remove road markings.
In addition to those for
hydrodemolition, Total Blasting’s
product stable includes tools for water-
jet cutting of steel and concrete.
Refinery shutdowns
Total Blasting supplied its specialised
high-pressure pumps and associated
tooling for the cleaning of plant and
equipment at Sasol’s Secunda refinery
plant during its critical annual shutdown
in September last year. The contractors
commissioned to undertake the industrial
cleaning also had used Total Blasting for
the annual shutdowns of the Sapref &
Chevron refinery in Durban and Cape
Town, earlier in the year, and once again
turned to the company’s reliable rental
fleet, available through sister company Total
Site Solutions.
Deemed one of the largest shutdowns
of its nature in the world, the Sasol
Secunda refinery shutdown has been a
prominent annual event since it started in
the early 1980s. The planned shutdown
took place over a 14-day period to
facilitate routine cleaning, critical path
maintenance, and essential mechanical
plant repairs.
With Sasol contributing approximately
29% of the South African fuel pool,
minimising non-production time is crucial
to ensure an uninterrupted supply of fuel in
the country.
Total Blasting supplied its 1 000-
bar and 2 800-bar units with flow rates
ranging from 60 to 120ℓ/min and 19ℓ/min,
respectively. “As a provider of high-
pressure cleaning solutions in an industry
with a number of other vendors, it is
the reliability of our equipment that
makes us the first-choice option. This
is especially true in refinery shutdown
applications where equipment needs
to run without any breakdowns to
ensure maximum uptime for the timely
completion of the task at hand,” Storer
explains. ■
Water jetting can be used in place of sandblasting, with
UHP water — 2 800 bar — being used to strip any
coating, contamination, or debris from a steel substrate.
Specialised high-pressure pumps and associated tooling
are used for cleaning plant and equipment across a
range of industries.
“Hydrodemolition is in
its infancy in Africa. The
success of this project
opens up opportunities
for hydrodemolition
and water jetting in
the southern African
concrete repair sector.”
JANUARY 2018
23