On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 01:25:54PM -0500, [email protected] wrote:
>
> There was (at one time at least) a method of coating big ship tanks called
> Flote Cote.
>
> The tank would be filled with water, paint poured on top of the water, then
> the water slowly pumped out of the tank. The paint would cling to the
> steel as the water level descended.
>
> I have no idea how well it worked.
Wow, interesting. Obviously, it would have to be some kind of a paint
that would stick to a wet surface, but there's enough money in that
business to push people to get pretty creative.
Oddly enough, I can't seem to find anything like "Flote Cote" (even with
a couple of alternate spellings) on the Net (other than a method of
applying drywall.) Might not be around anymore.
> I once watched an "impossible" pumping operation on a tanker.
>
> The deck gang was cleaning tanks and were pumping the last bits of water
> from the bottom of the 50' deep tanks. They used air operated diaphragm
> pumps sitting on deck with the water spewing from the pumps and running
> across the deck and overboard.
>
> >From what I understood of physics what was happening was impossible. One
> cannot suck water from any deeper than about 30' since one makes a vacuum
> with the pump and air pressure (about 15psi) pushes the water (about a half
> a pound per foot) column up. If the column is heavier than 15psi it won't
> go up.
>
> Turns out that the bottom end of the suction hose had a section of pipe on
> it with a small hole drilled in the pipe above the water level. This
> allowed air in to form bubbles and make the water lighter allowing the
> water/air mixture to be sucked up to the deck. I regret not remembering
> what size the drilled hole was.
Oh, easy enough: weld a short pipe stub at 90 degrees to the main pipe,
then tap a bolt into it crosswise that will block it off. Adjust for
proper mixture as desired. But yeah - smart. Human beings will find a
way when necessary.
Odd that they didn't use a pump on the bottom, which is how that's
handled in deep wells and such, but I can definitely see the advantage
of a big stationary pump on deck.
Ben
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