Co-ordinating all services on-site to work together can sometimes be challenging at the best of times. That’s why Polymaster has been constantly expanding its chemical and process tank range to provide pre-configured tanks.
“Our customers have, for some time now, been requesting more and more equipment attached to a tank at the factory, rather than in the field”, said Jason Egan of Polymaster.
Gone are the days when a tank rocks up to the site, and it’s all hands on deck welding fittings or wiring in instrumentation from scratch. The industry is asking for more ‘pre-configured tanks’ to be provided upfront, which has led to some big leaps forward in innovation in the sector.
“If you look at the products that we do, we’re bringing a chemical bunded tank to the site,” said Egan. “It comes with a dosing skid attached to it, a truck in-loading panel and various other pieces of kit including chlorine and pH analysers and level instrumentation already fitted,” Egan said. “All of this is factory tested, so when it arrives on-site, the unit is pretty much ready to go. Fill it, power it, calibrate it, and you’re done!”
Advancements in complete solutions
Another advancement has been providing more complete solutions around process tanks, such as clarifiers, chlorine contact tanks, or backwash tanks, to highlight a few.
“Internal fabrication of pipework and aerations systems is an area the factory team really excel in,” he said. “Recently, a water treatment contractor bought a clarifier design to the table for our 20kl cone bottom tank.”
This 20KL cone bottom tank has a 50° cone, which is ideal for sludge removal. This design was for in-flow dirty water. It introduces a coagulant to the flowing water so the solids drop to the bottom of the cone. The design would ensure the clean water stays at the top of the tank so the customer can recycle the clean water.
“It was a pretty cool design,” said Egan. “With water and sludge clarification, you can either process it continuously, like the design above or allow the dirty water to settle and separate over time. Once it’s settled, the sludge can be removed through the bottom outlet.”
Industry applications for pre-configured tanks
When it comes to these designs and configurations, many industries can take advantage of the cone bottom clarifier.
“Every road or rail tunnel project in the country ultimately ends up with dirty water they need to dispose of,” Egan said. “No one can simply take this dirty water off-site and treat it at a secondary processing plant. The costs are prohibitive, so they treat on-site with our tanks”.
Food and beverage, industrial manufacturing plants, recycling plants, utilities, and local councils benefit from these pre-configured tanks. These setups save time and don’t have to coordinate different trades.
“Wash bays for trucks and trains are also a very common user of these tanks,” he said. “This is especially true when they need to extract the solids and reuse the water to wash down the trucks. It’s a smart closed-loop system they’ve created.”
Flexibility
Although many processes can be common, Egan highlighted that some customers need a bespoke solution from time to time.
“As an OEM manufacturer, we’re able to customise a tank that is fit for that purpose,” Egan said. “Whether it’s an aeration system or a series of internal baffles to slow down the flow of liquid, our factory team are quite talented at piecing it all together to make it work for the customer.”
The future of the industry
As work sites and engineering resources are constantly under pressure to reduce headcount, Polymaster sees a greater need to supply a more complete solution rather than just a tank.
“We are in an exciting time in the industry, and we’re really enjoying the challenges our customers keep on bringing us,” Egan said.
For more information, visit www.polymaster.com.au/
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