Qlayers' innovative paint robot recently bagged them the gold Global Tank Storage Award for Emerging Technology. Able to paint tanks safely and effectively, judge Manuel Ronda from Shell calls the 10Q robot an innovation that: ‘ticks many boxes making the best use of the robot is to offset safety, environmental and efficiency issues.’

The 10Q offers a fast, safe and efficient way to coat the exterior of tanks, without exposing people and the environment to the danger of overspray.

Qlayers designed the robot with the following key objectives in mind:

• To reduce paint waste

• To reduce negative impacts on the environment

• To make coating a safer and faster process

‘The team is extremely happy to have won the award, and it is always great to gain recognition for the work that we do, as we have a super innovative product in a very traditional industry,’ says co-founder and CEO, Josefien Groot.

The Global Tank Storage Awards Emerging Technology prize is chosen by an independent, international judging panel of industry experts and professionals. It ‘is given to a cutting-edge technology that allows forward-thinking terminals to keep pace with a rapidly changing working environment.’ Cuttingedge technology and forward-thinking are two areas on which Qlayers pride themselves.

Groot explains that Qlayers has poured all investment into producing a high-quality product. As such, marketing has not been a main priority. However, winning this award shines a spotlight on their innovative and well-engineered 10Q robot. ‘The recognition from this award means we gain good attention for what we do,’ she says.

DEVELOPING A HIGH-TECH SOLUTION

Technology is increasingly being used and developed in the industry, to make various processes safer and more reliable. ‘At the moment, storage tanks are painted manually; usually referred to as coating. They are painted with rollers in the same way we paint our bedroom walls,’ says Groot. ‘In some cases, a spray gun is used but a lot of countries are against this due to its negative impact on people and the environment. Many are reverting to timeinefficient rolling processes. As a result, individuals painting work from dangerous heights, which can potentially lead to harmful accidents.’

In shedding light on the current manual processes of coating tank exteriors, Groot emphasises how the gap in the market for the 10Q came about – and how there was also a desperate need for the technology to be innovated.

Groot says: ‘With the 10Q robot, the current paint application process is outdone [whereby its efficiency, waste reduction and safety measurements are all improvements on manual paint processes]. The robot uses magnets to climb along the tank wall and surface. This is the only commercially available solution for automated paint application on storage tanks.’

Qlayers’ robot provides an automated solution that not only reduces risk to people, but also reduces time spent painting, waste paint and the impact on the environment. ‘With manual processes, there is always the opportunity for risks, and up to 50% of paint is wasted,’ adds Groot.

The 10Q robot is especially innovative as it also tackles the recurring process of painting a tank. ‘Tanks need to be painted every 15-20 years. In a manual process, the contractor comes in and removes the coating and then applies more coating layers. Businesses offering this service often also specialise in scaffolding to achieve this,’ says Groot. However, with Qlayers’ 10Q robot, customers will have more freedom in terms of the contractors they hire on site, all with remote support from Qlayers to operate the robot.

PRIORITISING WORKER SAFETY

The safety of workers is central to Qlayers’ values. The 10Q robot incorporates various safety provisions to ensure this during the painting process.

With a single robot able to paint faster than six people using rollers, the 10Q robot will see the introduction of new, technological jobs, whilst reducing risk to people in unsafe manual jobs.

As well as the risks that come with working at heights, Groot says: ‘Individuals are also exposed to chemicals. There is not yet a lot of research around what happens for people working with these chemicals long term.’ The introduction of 10Q could even be mitigating long-term health complications caused by paint particles being inhaled.

From an environmental perspective, overspray from the spray guns still used in some countries releases potentially harmful particles into the atmosphere. ‘The paint robot prevents this, and controls layer thickness – minimising paint waste,’ says Groot. ‘As the paint is not sustainable, this prevents the particles from impacting surrounding environments.’

FUTURE PLANS

The 10Q robot currently operates in Europe, Singapore and the US. This is just the start of the Qlayers journey towards implementing an automated painting process. Before the end of the year, Qlayers also hopes to open an office in the US and the Middle East.

The future is bright for Qlayers and its robot. ‘The robot can coat the majority of the tank but not all of it – with the hope that in the future it will have a higher coverage,’ says Groot. ‘At the moment, we only do part of the externals, but next we would like to be able to do the roof and the inside.’

Groot identifies that the Qlayers process is not fully automated yet, but it’s something to strive for in the future. Awards judge Jamie Winters praises Qlayers as: ‘a forward-thinking company that has rapidly expanded and has had some real success in changing the industry approach to storage tank painting.’

‘We also see the need to adapt the robots as we go, due to the different environmental conditions worldwide. This makes the robot more specific to each country’s conditions and requirements,’ Groot says. ‘Consequently, we attempt to log and report everything that happens on site and report back to the development team so changes can constantly be made. Customer feedback and operational experience in the field is used for product updates. Those updates are tested carefully, before considered in the next robot production cycle.’

For more information: www.qlayers.com