Paint VOC Off Gassing

Doesn't the Epoxy top coat seal the primer and Acrylic top coats leaving you with just trying to remove the smell of the Epoxy top coat?

Perhaps heating or baking the coating will help (not really sure but am interested in what others have to say on the matter).

If you mean one of these, and I guess you mean the dry freight container, my advice is to strip everything out of it, including the floor, sand blast the interior and leave it natural.
I have one that has been outside in Arizona for the last three years and I don't notice much bad odors, except from the noxious chemicals that I store there.I did nothing to it on delivery and maybe got lucky.
Lots of heat would be something to try.Covering the noxious stuff will only slow down the offgassing.Ozone will do nothing to help.

I thought ozone neutralized organic vapors with radical oxygen molecules

Well,

It might help. I'm skeptical.

What will it cost?

Caution: Ozone is a very powerful oxidising agent. Organic vapors: very easily oxidised to CO2 and H2O with explosive violence! Could all end in disaster.

It's all about the kaboom.

Lyn , I think it was you that suggested using shellack primer to seal off gassing from the ISO shipping containers. It worked great, THanks for the info

Why are you so sure that it's the outgassing of the paint?

Most paints or coatings would stabilise within days/weeks of manufacture applied coating.

We've loaded occasional containers and the smell that I identified was more probably adhesive from the laminated timber used in the flooring or maybe even chemical residue from fumigation treatments that had impregnated the flooring materials.

We ran a paint shop that used around 200L of paint per day and were very familiar with VOC and other outgassing odours. We also found that our own stored packaging (like cardboard) would outgass odours from the adhesives used to make them.

I agree that removal of internal fittings and then treatment with an interior (household) paint should make it equivalent to a house interior.

Just seal the room completely. Attach a series of roughing pumps and drop the absolute pressure down to a few torr for at least eight hours. When you bleed back up to atmospheric pressure the aroma will be hard to notice.

Vacuum bag it.

Zinc rich primer and the epoxy topcoat are the ISO standards used in manufacturing, the new containers were left open all summer, empty , in the hot sun . This had minimal effect on the off gassing . Adding more ventilation and coating inside with water based paint to slow the fumes so far is better than not doing anything , but still can't store certain items, water etc . The quest continues

I don't understand. I make two glaringly absurd yet plausible remedies to your problem and you do neither. You claim to attempt a different remedy than my suggestions in less time than it takes to be accomplished. I know of no water based paint that is fully cured (not dry to touch) in 24 hours. Yet you claim on one of my absurd suggestions that this other proposal does not work.

The cynic in me may have overwhelmed my rational thought but I think you are making this all up.

Come on.

How could anybody be that desperate for our attention?

How indeed?

I have 6 used containers of unknown ages, also 5 new containers. Age and heat do seem to disapate fumes over time , but the food and water I stored in the used ones ,even short periods of time (2 months ) became too contaminated for consumption . The New containers were even more intense. The used containers that I store tools in have to be opened and aired out before you can enter, that time varies with age of unit and temperature , that's why I increased ventilation while unit is closed. When you open the doors , you don't get blasted with toxic fumes, then one can enter for short time. I mostly use containers for tool and building materials storage, so this system is ok, but I would like to use a few containers for food storage and storm shelter ,etc. . The local Harbor Freight Tool store has same fumes and smell as I described , the boxes absorb fumes during shipment from China. Walmart uses containers with a different coating so their cargo from china does not have this issue. I have seen numerous articles and pictures of containers used for habitats, and was wondering how they dealt with this . Stripping the original coating and recoating might be too costly . What process is used to cover up fire and smoke damage ? Are these problems similar ? Thanks

The local Harbor Freight Tool store has same fumes and smell as I described , the boxes absorb fumes during shipment from China. Walmart uses containers with a different coating so their cargo from china does not have this issue.

I don't think this has anything to do with paint. Depending on the shipment, cargo boxes from China will be fumigated with nasty chemicals to kill bugs, rats, mice, and anything else that's living.

It's possible that the reason the Walmart containers don't smell, is because they buy so much stuff, that they can make certain demands about the treatment of the cargo. Even the Chinese don't want to piss off Walmart.

Why don't you try washing them with an industrial, (non-toxic), cleaner, pressure washing them, and then get some of these:

http://noodor.com/p/vapor-vapors-fumes-remove-gas-removal-filter-trap.html

What the rules say, and what actually happens in China, look like they don't always match up.

http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/pet_126B_e_28853.html

This makes much more sense. The IOC shipping container paint standard does not make them reek. If it did then every container would reek. So either another chemical (possibly a pesticide, herbicide or other poisonous hazard) has been layered onto the surface or this is not painted with an IOC approved paint for shipping containers.

Another problem here is that this particular container is being re-purposed on a low budget. The treatment records that presumably accompanied the original shipment have been lost along the way. Without a forensic analysis of what exists in this trailer it can only be a guess what might wash away or seal without leaching through this mysterious substance.

This is why I made my two absurd but effective proposals to clean the containers. Succeeding in reaching the vacuum level for eight hours will likely stop any out gassing at atmospheric pressure. Slightly exceeding the melting point of steel will remove through oxidation or de-lamination any organic material applied to steel. I have no idea what kind of steel alloy the floor will become.

Does anyone have experience with AFM Safecoat, for sealing in VOCs. http://www.afmsafecoat.com/products.php?page=2

Haven't heard of it. Did you talk to these guys?

http://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/products/catalog/white_pigmented_shellac_primer/?WT.mc_id=Old%20DIY%20Products%20Redirect

Will check out it out tonight along with the safecoat sealer, will let you know how that goes, thanks for the info.

You tried to store food for two months in a container that reeked!

Raise the internal temperature of your shipping container to at least 1600°C for at least one hour. This will remove all volatile aromatic compounds from the surface of the shipping container.

1600c, will surely remove every thing including the container. Are you sure 1600c or 160c. Type-O ?

I'm sure red was joking, but I wouldn't recommend adding any heat source at all. Depending on the chemicals that are leaching out, an enclosed container would make a great bomb, given an ignition source.

C4!!! Enough C4 will surely remove anything and quickly too.

Not Kenny!

Why not swap to water-based paints, like acrylics?

Are you doing the painting?

It sounds like you're in the US. Find a Sherwinn Williams industrial store, and ask them about the low VOC DTM urethane. Or just describe your problem and have one of their guys recommend a system for you. There are lots of low VOC options.

If the out-gassing is coming from the existing paint, (when you get the containers), they probably didn't allow enough dry time between coats. If that's the case, adding more paint probably won't fix it. I'd just set them outside in the sun for a few weeks until the paint has completely cured.

Not sure all of what your doing here. Are you painting the inside of new units? If so there are several ways to lower the off gassing issues. Drying 2 part paints can be done in several ways. Air drying is certainly one way. Force drying using some type of heating source is another. I have used both methods and have also combined each to make a quicker system. For your issue you 1st need to ID the actual cause of the gasses. If your find they are truly related to the VOC's of the paint. I would then look into IR cured coatings. Short Wave IR Can also help remove the VOC's from the air. Contact one of the many IR burner suppliers and manufactures and have them suggest a system for you. To complicated to do so here.

Good Luck

Fixit

Since your requirement is to use zinc rich primer and epoxy topcoat I am guessing tht it is for corrosion protection. Try using MIL-DTL-64159, water dispersable top coat and has a lower VOC. It is also corrosion inhibiting. I would also suggest oven curing. That should help to speed up any off gassing.

It'll take quite an oven. These things are 20 feet long, 8 1/2 feet high and 8 feet wide.

I would suggest the water dispersable paint then.

Oh, these are shorties? Most containers used nowadays (in North America anyways) are 40' high cubes!

Two comments to add to this discussion:

1. Ozone won't help. It will react with gaseous and near-surface hydrocarbons (especially unsaturated) as well as some other compounds, but is not likely to permeate the paint layer any reasonable distance. It will likely make a difference for a week or so, and then the odour will gradually come back. It is also murder on rubber (think door seals).
2. Your real problem is actually probably not VOC's. Those are volatile by definition, and are in every drying coating (INCLUDING water based) as well as almost every reactive curing coating. There are several chemicals that are "exempt" in certain jurisdictions (think politics!-acetone?) that will be found in VOC free coatings but really can be considered VOC's from a physical characteristics standpoint. These tend to evaporate relatively fast, and are not likely to be much of a problem in an older container that has soaked up a lot of heat from the sun. What is more likely to be a problem is the heavier fractions just above the VOC range that are very low volatility and tend to remain in the coating; those heating cycles then tend to drive them out into the container, to build up until someone opens the doors & gets a whiff! Due to the low vapour pressures, thise can happen repeatedly.

So your choices are; ventilate the containers & keep them cold, find a paint that is specified for use in enclosed food preparation areas at higher temperatures, or you can try baking them- but not necessarily at the temperatures suggested in earlier posts. I would suggest that you need to get the interior over 200 F, 250 would be better. with relatively dry air (not steam),ventilate and circulate it (otherwise the partial pressures will slow down the offgassing), and keep it at that for several days- you shouldn't be able to touch the container. Maybe several kerosene heaters?