Agricultural Tank Repair

Agricultural tanks serve a variety of purposes. They can easily be damaged, especially when you consider all of the heavy equipment often used around them.

Whether an agricultural tank has a small two-inch crack, a 5-foot-long crack, or a hole, this type of damage can easily be repaired with one of Polyvance’s nitrogen plastic welders and some polyethylene welding rod (we used LDPE welding rod, but HDPE rod can be used). In this case, this giant polyethylene tank had a large hole cut into it that is no longer needed.

In this video, we will show you how to repair a hole this size using a nitrogen plastic welder and a sheet of polyethylene.

Always wear proper safety gear while working!

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Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuaDvdvYFVY

LDPE or HDPE?

The difference between LDPE (low density polyethylene) and HDPE (high density polyethylene) is the length of the molecule chains. HDPE has longer molecular chains than LDPE and the melting temperature of HDPE is often higher than that of LDPE.

LDPE's lower melting temperature usually makes using it as filler rod easier-to-use than welding HDPE filler rod to HDPE plastics.

HDPE is also "tougher" and more abrasion resistant than LDPE, but the practical difference is minimal when doing repair work. If you need the best wear characteristics and can live with making slower, more difficult welds, use HDPE rod. In most cases, we see better quality welds when using LDPE rod for typical crack or hole repair on boat hulls and ATV plastics.

Products Used:

Note: This is a list of the Polyvance products that can be used to make this repair. This list does not include sanders, grinders, or other common tools you will need. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call technical support at 800-633-3047.

• 1000 Super Prep Plastic Cleaner (several options available) OR 1001-4 EcoPrep Plastic Cleaner
• 6125 Tapered Burr
• Polyethylene Sheet
• 6204 Hot Spot Cordless Rechargable Plastic Stapler
• 6122 Heavy Duty Round Cutting Burr
• Nitrogen Plastic Welder (several options available)
• Low Density Polyethylene Welding Rod (High Density Polyethyelene welding rod can also be used)

Video Notes:

• The yellow 6203 Hot Spot Plastic Stapler has been discontinued and replaced with the 6204 Hot Spot Plastic Stapler.
• English Closed Captions have been provided for this video. Click on the CC button to turn them on or off.
• The length of this video is in no way representative of the actual time required to perform a complete repair and therefore should not be used for estimating purposes.

Music Credits:

• "Super Friendly" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
• "Wallpaper" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
  Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

English Transcript:

Agricultural tanks serve a variety of purposes. They can easily be damaged, especially when you consider all of the heavy equipment often used around them. Whether an agricultural tank has a small two-inch crack, a 5-foot-long crack, or a hole, this type of damage can easily be repaired with one of Polyvance's nitrogen plastic welders. In this case, this giant polyethylene tank had a large hole cut into it that is no longer needed. In this video, we will show you how to repair a hole this size using a nitrogen plastic welder and a sheet of polyethylene.

First, thoroughly clean the damaged area and the area immediately around it. Any leftover chemical residue can prevent the plastic from fusing properly, causing a weak repair. Next, use a grinder to round out the hole by removing any uneven or jagged plastic. To repair a hole this size, we are going to make a plug. It is ideal to use a sheet of polyethylene to make a plug for agricultural tanks. Make a template for the plug by tracing around the hole. We used a thin sheet of transparent plastic to make our template. Cut out the template and use it to draw the outline of the plug on the polyethylene sheet. Once you have your outline drawn, you can cut out the plug.

Next, place the plug over the hole and mark any areas that need to be trimmed down. Use a grinder to do any necessary trimming and shaping so that the plug fits flush in the hole. To keep the plug from falling into the tank while putting it in place, we attached a strip of polyethylene welding rod to make a handle.

Insert the polyethylene plug so that it fits properly into the hole. You may have to rotate the plug until it slides into place. Use a flathead screwdriver and your hands to tap and align the plug until it fits flush. If you have a plastic stapler, melt in a couple of staples to hold the plug in place. If you don't have a plastic stapler, you can tack weld to hold it in place. Now that our plug is secure, we can cut the handle off.

Make a v-groove that goes at least halfway through the plastic and is at least an inch to an inch-and-a-half wide. Be sure to leave your stapled or tacked area untouched for now. In order to melt the plastic consistently, you will need to adjust the heat and the flow on your Polyvance nitrogen plastic welder. This tank is around an inch thick, so we will adjust the flow to thirteen or fourteen liters per minute and set the temperature to between 80 and 90. Now we will begin the welding process.

Because this hole is quite large, it will be best to weld in two sections to keep the plastic from cooling between weld passes. Your first pass of welding rod should be in the center of the crack, starting and stopping about an inch from your staples or tack welds. In some cases, you may need to lay multiple passes in the center. After the center is done, continue welding, filling in the v-groove. Smooth the welding rod with both the airless and nitrogen welders. Once smoothed, you can add welding rod to fill in any gaps. Repeat this process to fill in the other section and smooth out the welding rod. Allow the repair to cool completely before moving on to the next step.

After the repair has cooled back to room temperature, you can remove any staples that were used. Now it's time to v-groove the area where the staples or tack welds were. V-groove the plastic the same as you did before, making sure it goes at least halfway through the plastic and is at least an inch to an inch-and-a-half wide. You also need to taper about an inch into the edges of the existing welds. This allows the adjoining welds to fuse properly for a strong, seamless repair. After you finish welding these final areas, smooth and shape to achieve the desired appearance. Once the welds cool, this repair is complete. Now this tank is capable of holding its capacity without leaking.

Thanks for watching! Make sure you subscribe to our channel and hit the bell to be notified when we post a new video. Let us know in the comments what you thought of this repair, and check out our other videos for more plastic repair tutorials.