WINTER IS COMING!
It’s that time of year again where we must concern ourselves with cold weather. In the refractory industry, this change in conditions creates concerns for both worker safety as well as the installation quality of refractory materials. So be sure to dress appropriately, be mindful of slippery surfaces, and follow these tips in order to ensure that the materials used during your refractory project perform as intended.
- Keep materials warm well in advance of installation. Cold materials take longer to warm up than many anticipate.
- Deliver materials early when possible and store them in a warm location. Remember they can get cold in transit.
- Don’t overheat materials. It can be easy to set materials in an area of a facility such as next to an operating furnace where materials could become too warm to install.
- Don’t forget about the water. It may be necessary to warm water used for mixing castables.
- Ensure that materials set-up in a climate-controlled area. Even if they are a suitable temperature when mixed, materials still require a room temperature area in order to set-up properly after they are installed.
Failure to keep materials a suitable temperature during winter weather installations can result in materials that do not set-up properly or exhibit as-installed physical properties well below those that were communicated by the material manufacturer.
For insight on how to have a safe and successful cold weather outage, reach out to Schad today. Our project managers have experience installing refractory materials in all conditions!