HoldTight®102
flash rust inhibitor / salt remover

TECHNICAL BULLETIN
BLASTING: wet abrasive, water, and dry

 Open a 48 to 96+ hour rust-free window between blasting and coating.

Most often used in wet abrasive or water blasting, sometimes after dry blasting, HoldTight®102, usually allows a 48 hour interval -- 4 or 5 days or more in many cases -- before coating. It leaves no film or residue -- it is not a "protective coating" like many inhibitors that create a separate layer or moisture barrier between the surface and the new coating.

Since it is not a coating, HoldTight® 102 will not interfere with primer or coating adhesion. Since it cleans the surface it should in fact enhance long term performance. It has been tested and approved by most major coating manufacturers. Others simply recommend it.

HoldTight® 102 works as a rust inhibitor because it removes chlorides and other contaminants.

The HoldTight® 102 formula is proprietary, but the process is simple. HoldTight® 102 acts in part as a surfactant. It reduces the surface tension of water so it cleans better -- greatly reducing surface chlorides and other contaminants that help cause rust to form. HoldTight® 102 super drys a substrate, very fast -- it entirely volatilizes itself and takes with it virtually all the moisture left on the surface by the blasting operation.

HoldTight®102 and dry blasting.

When a dry blasted surface flash rusts immediately, high levels of contaminants are probably present. Washing down such a surface with clean water treated with HoldTight®102, diluted 50 to one, at 500 psi (34 bar) at 1-3 gpm (3.8-11.4 Lpm) or greater, will dramatically reduce or eliminate the contaminants and open a 48 hour or bigger window. However, contaminant levels on dry blasted surfaces may be so high -- in part because dry blasting concentrates contaminants -- that a 2000+ psi wash down or even re-blasting may be necessary. (Whenever very high levels of contaminants are present, the better practice is to use wet abrasive or water blasting with HoldTight®102 in the first place, rather than dry blasting.)

A test or early warning of extreme contamination or bad water.

A surface flash rusts after the use of HoldTight® 102 only if one of two conditions, are present (either one of which is potentially "bad news" for coating performance):

        EITHER, the substrate is extremely contaminated and a higher pressure wash down or reblast is necessary. (It should not be coated in any case until the contaminants are substantially reduced or eliminated.)

        OR, the blast water or abrasive used was highly contaminated (e.g., hard water) or acidic. Use of industrial or "plant" water may cause this condition. Avoid it.

        Therefore, if HoldTight®102 fails, STOP what you are doing, and call us immediately. We can usually come up with a cost effective solution. (And since bad water may also damage equipment, especially UHP equipment, call your equipment supplier too.)