#5802
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From Fritz: Dalelynn,
How is it that the tank manufacturers can paint or coat the tanks in the first place?
I have a dive buddy that has painted his tanks with Imron paint. They were painted prior to hydro testing.
I have seen how SCUBA tanks are made, and they are sanded by a belt sander at the end of the manufacturing process. This sanding is done in a cross plane manner as well, leaving fine sanding groves to begin a crack from expansion and contraction.
I feel like this may be another one of those liability things that nobody wants to cross a line by saying, "Yes you can".
Okay, I’m a tank inspector too and I can tell you right now if you cover up the markings on the tank where they can’t be read your tank will fail my visual inspection. I also doubt you find anyone to fill it with the markings covered. Make sure you can read all the data (SN, Hydro, etc).
The tanks are sanded and painted at the factory...if you spray paint them yourself no issue; however, like mentioned before don’t "bake" the paint on. Any heat treatment (including running a belt sander on it yourself) can ruin your tank and if there is any evidence of baking it you will fail visual as well. This is a safety issue...heating metal causes it to become brittle...brittle metal breaks...tanks are exposed to high pressure...when they break it is bad for the person filling it. It isn’t a liability issue it is a "I don’t want to die or kill someone else" issue.
Whatever you do, don’t paint or coat the inside of your tank. This deadlines it too. The standards are there to prevent accidents, injuries, death, and loss of property.
If you want to learn about the "why" of it and not listen to speculation take the PSI course and the Gas Blender course so you can learn about the entire process and safety. This also removes the "it is a liability" mentality.
On the "it is a liability issue" you will also learn how you might kill a person filling your tanks if they are doing a partial pressure blend on your Nitrox tank and you’ve been filling it with air on your compressor after it was O2 cleaned and fail to mention it because "they just tell me it has to be O2 clean because it is a liability issue or they just want more money."
It is also a safety issue with painting a tank. Just know what you are doing and how to do it safely before doing it. Good luck.
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