A solution to the costly problem of rust and corrosion

Whether it is your: hay shed; milking parlour; slurry or manure spreaders; tractors; trailers; mowers; or even a vintage tractor or machinery, you will be well aware of the damage that occurs when rust takes hold.

Apart from being very unsightly – and in certain circumstances, unhygienic – rust left unchecked eventually spreads and possibly even weakens the metal that it appears on. This can lead to additional costly failures or eventual costly replacement.

Vehicles which travel on the road are now coming under increasing scrutiny as regards safety and rust is becoming an issue where it went unnoticed in the past.

What is rust?

Rust occurs naturally on unprotected steel or when the protective coating on steel becomes compromised due to damage etc. Rust then forms as a consequence of moisture and oxygen acting together, attacking the metal surface.

In the past, the primary solution for rust was to grind off or use a wire brush to remove the rust scale. Following this, a primer or oxide paint was applied and that was it. However, after all the work, this solution lasts just a few months before the rust breaks out again.

The reason this traditional rust treatment does not work is because it doesn’t deal with the source of the rust – trapped moisture and oxygen inside the pores of the rust and in tiny unreachable crevices or joints. Even the tiniest spec of rust, left untreated properly, will spread and undo all of your previous preparation.

Two proven solutions for rust:

Steel you cannot or don’t want to blast – the solution is Owatrol Oil;
Steel you can blast clean – the solution is ZINGA, Galvanising System.

Steel you cannot or don’t want to blast

For steel that you don’t want to blast or where blasting is not possible, Owatrol Oil can be used; it also can be used to freshen up the look of a machine which has patches of rust. The simplest and best solution for this is outlined below.

Five steps to follow using Owatrol Oil:

Power wash whatever it is you wish to paint;
Scrape off any scales of rust as best you can. No need to grind off the hard tight bits – they can be left there unless you have the time and patience to remove;
Apply Owatrol Oil over the entire surface to ensure no microscopic bits of rust are missed;
Leave to dry for 24 hours. Owatrol Oil is a proven rust stopper and is the rust solution of choice with 75% of Ireland’s top professional painting contractors since 1998;
Apply an oil-based paint that matches the job and add in about 20% Owatrol oil into the first coat. One coat will do a decent enough job, but two is better.

The same principal may be used for sheds or any other steel around the farm. An additional benefit of Owatrol Oil is that it boosts adhesion. If you have a shed prone to peeling paint, power wash it first. Then add 5L of Owatrol Oil to 20L of any good oxide paint; this will prevent your paint from peeling for many years.

How Owatrol Oil works

The image below shows where Owatrol Oil has been applied at point A. Point B shows how the Owatrol Oil has soaked in behind the metal and emerged through the nut.

Point C shows where the Owatrol Oil has emerged having soaked through the joint. It has driven out all of the trapped moisture and oxygen which the rust feeds on.

For more information on Owatrol Oil click here

Steel you can blast clean

For steel that you can blast clean the solution is ZINGA, Galvanising System. If you are going to go to the trouble and expense of blasting your trailer, tractor or other machinery, you won’t find a better way to protect that blasted steel than with a coat or two of ZINGA.

ZINGA (97% pure zinc) is a galvanising system similar in quality (or better depending on coats) to hot dipped galvanising and this system will outlast any other known coating. ZINGA is used worldwide to prevent rust on the most demanding applications from oil rigs to shipping.

ZINGA can be applied by brush or spray and is best done within four or five hours of blasting. It can be applied like any paint, but it is important to blast the metal first.

An alternative to blasting is to use a cup wire brush on a grinder, but blasting is the best if it can be carried out.

ZINGA – when left as it is – dries out grey in colour and can be left like that unless you want to apply a colour of your choice as a top coat; the top coat must be a two-pack paint.

One coat of Zinga (without a top coat) offers in excess of 10 years of maintenance-free protection; two coats doubles that. When two-pack paint is applied on top of this, the protection is increased by several additional years.

New sheds

If you are erecting a new steel shed, insist on ZINGA as the protection applied by the steel supplier. ZINGA is approved by the Department of Agriculture for grant purposes.