Jobstory - Surface maintenance Olympia-Pool Bordeaux
Initial Situation
Just 5 months after the opening the indoor swimming pool had to be closed again. All the stainless steel surfaces showed extensive corrosion or even pitting corrosion. Further use of the swimming pool was unthinkable due to health and safety concerns.
The causes
It remained unclear what surface preparation the polished and matted stainless steel 316 Ti/316L surfaces had undergone. The pattern of damage clearly indicated the following causes:
- Incorrect treatment of the stainless steel surfaces
- lack of passivation
- use of hydrochloric acid tile cleaners
- use of chlorine as a water disinfectant and the resultant condensation containing chlorine (CL-ions)
The solution
After testing on surfaces with various levels of damage the following Pelox products were used: Pelox Passivation Solution RP, Surface Cleaner FR-D and FR-D Special as well as Special-Cleaner Plus 3000. The cleaning process was enhanced by using special sponges and polishing pads.
The result
The pictures speak for themselves. In only four days 250m² of stainless steel surfaces were manually cleaned. Approximately 60 kg of cleaning products and 40 kg of passivation solution were used.
Pictures on left: The stairway to the diving platform before and after the surface treatment. The level of contamination is a good example for all stainless steel surfaces of the swimming pool. Pictures on right: The combination of stainless steel and glass surfaces is very common in many types of construction – not only for swimming pools. It is striking that even surfaces that were not in direct contact with the water also had considerable corrosion. The picture on the far right shows the stainless steel beam after the cleaning procedure.