This year Abfad will be celebrating 20 years as an established business in the UK. That’s 20 years providing innovative specialist services to solve industry problems, such as rope access services, emergency rescue and safety cover, solvent free single skin tank lining and double skin tank lining with our Fuelvac® system, pipeline corrosion prevention with our Pipevac® system, Weld Seam monitoring, and of course our fantastic Magnetic Positioning Aid.

In our 20 years we’ve had our ups and our downs, we’ve seen recession, a crisis in the oil and gas market, the rope industry expand (not necessarily for the better), but we are still here going strong which is testament to the quality of the services we provide.

Rope Access Services

Rope access is the chosen means of access in many industries, both offshore and onshore. In fact rope access tends to be the best system for completing work quickly, safely and without disruption. This was how we started out all those years ago, and have been driving forward with rope access systems ever since, supplying trade experienced rope access personnel for working at height in all industries. We believe that our rope access technicians should be trade experienced and able to perform any work to a high standard, this ensures that our clients have complete confidence in our ability to get the job done and produce fantastic results.

Power generation rope access maintenance

Emergency Rescue and Safety Cover

We provide Emergency Rescue and Safety Cover services for other people working at height or within confined spaces. Our rescue teams are fully trained and equipped, so that should an emergency situation arise, they can perform the necessary assessment of the situation and perform any rescue needed in a safe and controlled way. This ensures casualties are recovered in the fastest time possible and administered with first aid.

Regulation 5 of the ‘Confined Spaces Regulations’ says “you must make suitable arrangements for emergency rescue which will depend on the nature of the confined space, the risks identified and the likely nature of an emergency rescue. You should not rely on the public emergency services”.

IP being winched to safety

Magnetic Positioning Aid

Newtons third law of motion states “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”, this can be witnessed when performing work suspended by a rope, the force applied pushes the rope access technician away from the working surface. The usual method of support is to ‘tie in’, but on some structures this can be difficult, impractical, time consuming and in sometimes impossible. Our Magnetic Positioning Aid provides the solution to this problem as it allows the rope access technician to securely lock and anchor themselves into place on any ferrous structure, this gives the technician the stability needed to carry out the required work with confidence and precision.

Our Magnetic Positioning Aid has proved invaluable in areas that can only be accessed by rope but need a reliable method of moving the rope access technician closer to the working surface and anchoring them securely.

Abfad Magnet System in Action

Solvent Free Single Skin Tank Lining

A solvent free solution to protect storage tanks from corrosion, both above and underground tanks. The solvent free resin fully encapsulates the internal steel of the tank with 1000+ microns of product applied to create a corrosion resistant barrier.

The benefits of single skin tank lining:

  • Creates a corrosion resistant barrier on the steel.
  • Extends the life of the storage tank.
  • If new tanks are coated with a single skin the steel will remain free from corrosion.
  • Reduced maintenance costs leading to increased profits.
  • Newly installed double wall steel tanks can also benefit from single skin lining as the internal steel wall is still impacted by corrosion.

Single skin solvent free coating of an above ground storage tank

Fuelvac® Double Skin Tank Lining System

Abfad have developed a solvent free double skin tank lining system with class 1 vacuum leak detection monitoring. This system prevents corrosion from impacting on the steel of the tank, whilst at the same time ensuring stored products remains safe and contained.

Benefits of double skin tank lining:

  • Provides double protection for storage tanks as steel work is blasted, coated and held in a vacuum.
  • No expensive tank replacement or environmental clean up costs.
  • Integrated 24/7 vacuum leak detection monitoring, client is immediately alerted if an internal or external breach occurs and can plan inspection knowing the stored product is safe.
  • Protects against internal corrosion, tank content loss, environmental pollution, catastrophic failure and potential disaster.
  • Fuelvac® double skin liner is quick to install resulting in minimum down time.

Double skin solvent free tank lining of an underground storage tank

PIPEVAC® PIpeline Corrosion Prevention and Monitoring

PIPEVAC® has been designed from our successful Fuelvac® system, but incorporating industry standard pipe wrapping tapes, creating a robust vacuum leak detection and corrosion prevention system for excellent protection of pipelines under most service conditions.

  • PIPEVAC® provides the answer to elimination and monitoring of corrosion by creating a vacuum around the pipe substrate.
  • Prevents against Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) as the integrated vacuum system prevents moisture and oxygen from attacking the external surface area of the pipe.
  • An internal or external breach of the pipe will activate an alarm as vacuum pressure will not be able to be maintained, alerting the client to the problem and allowing them to investigate.
  • PIPEVAC® has been developed from over 10 years experience with corrosion prevention and vacuum systems.

The completed PIPEVAC protection system

Weld Seam Monitoring

  • Protect vital welds with Weld Seam Monitoring from Abfad Limited.
  • Abfads Weld Seam Monitoring System allows the vital welds of a structure to be monitored and acts as an early warning indicator, allowing operators to investigate before a catastrophic failure of the structure occurs.
  • Any structure which suffers the potential for stress and fatigue will benefit from Weld Seam Monitoring. This could be wind turbines, bridges, pressure vessel external welds, and any structure that is subject to cyclic loading.
  • The integrated vacuum system also protects vital welds from corrosion by preventing moisture and oxygen attacking the weld.

Wrapping tapes applied to weld seam