Panama Canal Tugboat Pump

At the Panama Canal, a fleet of tugboats assists ships passing through the newly expanded locks. Each of the tugboats have pumps like this one, which pump salt water.

Constant exposure to salt water caused the entire surface of this pump to suffer from erosion and corrosion. This caused a weakening of the metal which then reduced the pump’s efficiency in addition to leaks at the seams.

ENECON Panama was asked to provide a solution to the problems on these critical pumps.

After grit blasting the pump and all of its components, a first coat of CeramAlloy CL+AC was applied to wet out all surfaces. CeramAlloy CP+ACwas then used to rebuild the weakened and damaged areas. Then a final layer of CeramAlloy CL+ACwas used to protect the pump from future erosion and corrosion problems.

The success of this application has lead to many more projects with the Panama Canal Authority.