Quenching Bath Installations

Siting any tank in a galvanizing plant requires consideration of several factors.

1. Headroom.
How much room do you need for your crane to be able to move material over the top of the tank.

2. Spillage
If you are going to spill the liquid, you probably don't want it on the floor. So putting the tank in a pit allows catching the spillage.

3. Water table height.
A pit into the ground isn't much good if the ground water is too high. It causes the pit to have an upward thrust, or if not waterproof, it would flood. (But if not water proof, its no good to catch spillage).

But watch out about spillage. Depending what material the tank is made from and what quench liquid, corrosion cold be a big problem. A steel tank unprotected, in a pit where Chromic acid quench spills will surely rust out in about 2-3 years, - from the outside.

Sirs:

I cannot understand any reason whatsoever for elevating the quench tank by 1/2 meter (such that the bottom of the quench tank is 1/2 meter above floor level) I can think of many reasons why this is a bad idea and they start with safety. Why don't you ask your designer/engineer? I believe secondary containment is required in North America for environmental reasons.

Regards,