Investment in FST Hertford site

This latest investment project has enabled Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies to expand its service offering and increase the range of coating solutions to its customers. 

Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies uses aluminium oxide grit for the blasting of carbon and stainless steel objects, which are typically large vessels for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. These objects are then subsequently coated in Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies’ high-performance F-LON® coatings. The blast and spray rooms were needed to match the existing capacity of the oven used for curing the specialist coatings at the site.  The greater capacity and confidence gained from having the new blast and paint rooms has enabled Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies to explore new business opportunities previously not available. The in-floor recovery system allows the efficient use of the grit, as it gives an even cleaning and recycling of the grit, which improves performance and allows continuous blasting of large items while the grit is recovered, cleaned and recycled. Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies blasts a variety of objects in the blast room, the largest item blasted so far is a 2.5m diameter vessel weighing in at approximately 1.5 tonnes.  Due to the success, high performance and efficiency of the new blast room, Fluorocarbon is using it more frequently for the blasting of general items. The object being blasted in the video is a thermal level sensor used in the chemical industry

The Venus spray booth, which is 7 metres long, 5 metres wide and 5 metres high, has a large roller door at both ends of the booth to allow products to be introduced at one end and fed straight through into the curing oven if required.

There is an in-floor ventilation system that vertically draws the air from the roof mounted air intakes providing a very efficient extraction and filtration of overspray, which ensures a clean working environment.  The ventilation system includes a gas fuelled heater which enables pre-heating of the booth and maintains a consistent temperature during all weather conditions. This has proven to have a positive effect on several of the high-performance Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies coatings that benefit from tightly controlled environmental conditions during application. The filtered ventilation system has also greatly improved the finish of the coated products as well as creating a cleaner working environment outside the spray booth.  These factors greatly reduce re-work, which saves time and money, and creates an optimised finished coating for Fluorocarbon Surface Technologies’ customers.  Again, as with the blast room, roof and side mounted high-performance lighting ensures perfect visibility for the spraying operators.