Tank sticker removal woes

[Colliam7]

What is the best way to remove old stickers on steel and aluminum tanks after doing a Vis Inspection? That razor blade scrape is a giant PITA.

If you are using a standard, narrow, single edge razor blade, it IS a giant PITA. But, why do that?

I do a lot of VIPs - all the VIPs for the shop where I also currently teach. And, I batch the work, so that I am usually doing 10-15 cylinders at a time. For me it is an assembly line process. When I started at the current shop, they showed me where the single edge razor blades - that the previous 'VIP-er' had used - were kept, and I just laughed. I wouldn't use them, nor would I use one of the narrow scrapers that the standard blades fit in. Those, too, are a PITA.

I prefer to use a 3.5 inch wide Kobalt scraper (Shop Kobalt Single Blade Straight Handle Safety Scraper at Lowes.com). I find that, once I get a corner, then an entire side started, I can generally peel the old sticker off, by hand, in its entirety / whole. Sometimes, I have to use a bit of care to avoid having the sticker split. And, for painted cylinders I am particularly careful about the paint. And, yes, it is still a PITA when a customer brings in a cylinder with the last 7 years worth of VIP stickers still on the tank because whomever was doing VIPs before, at a different shop, was too lazy to scrape them off (and, no, these are usually not 'special' VIP stickers, from some exotic locale or a shop with a particularly unique name, that the customer wants to keep on the cylinder). But, by and large, getting stickers off is relatively straightforward.

For me, using heat, or a chemical, would actually take far more time than I require to get the stickers off with a wide scraper (plus, I agree with the point of dumpsterdiver's comment). I will also admit, that various 'brands' of stickers vary in how hard they are to remove. What you want is a sticker with adhesive that is reasonably secure, to the extent that the sticker will stay in place during a year's worth of 'normal' use, and wear and tear, and then come off with relative ease when you peel them back. I find the PADI stickers, for example, to fit that bill. But, there are some, less expensive, stickers that shops can buy from large discounters, to save pennies per sticker, that don't come off quite as easily. Still, with a wide blade scraper, I seldom have any real difficulty. A lot of it is in the technique.

 

[NAM001]

Use what ever you want hot water or a heat gun. if you have to use the heat to the point that it is threatening your tank the sticker is not going to come off. The heat only needs to warm the sticker adhesive not the tank. Are some paranoid about this???? it appears YES in deed.

 

[Octopusprime]

To turn this thread around... When I took my PSI course I got a roll of PSI stickers to use but most shops have custom stickers with their contact info on them. I have a great printer but if I wanted to have more stickers printed is their a material/adhesive that would stay on but not be a PITA to get off? I'm thinking a vinyl sticker over a paper one. Any suggestions?

 

[Hickdive]

Really? Spot heating a section of an aluminum tank to boiling temperature is fine? Doing it while filled is fine? I would be more comfortable getting a steel tank hot, but I would avoid it for an Al tank.. Maybe I am just paranoid.

The tempering on aluminium cylinders is unaffected to about 280 deg C. By using boiling water you can be absolutely certain that you will get nowhere near that temperature no matter how long you pour the boiling water on for whereas heat guns operate at temperatures between around 100 deg C up to as much as 700 deg C and beyond and certainly do offer the potential to overheat the metal on a particular spot and affect the tempering. Also a kettle filled with just boiled water is disconnected from its energy source so no additional heat could be supplied even if you could heat the water to above 100 deg C at atmospheric pressure; whereas a heat gun in use is continually connected to an energy source and so can can continue to transmit energy, in the form of heat, into the material it is being used upon.

In addition, I would need to heat the whole cylinder to 100 deg C before the temperature of the gas inside would eventually also rise to 100 deg C in equilibrium. I'm extremely unlikely to achieve that by pouring a couple of litres of boiling water over the cylinder in the space of a minute or so. Even supposing I did manage to heat the cylinder and gas inside and assuming that the cylinder started at around room temperature I'd only be raising the temperature by around 75 deg Kelvin. A cylinder filled to around 230 bar would then rise in pressure to less than 300 bar - still well below test pressure and burst pressure.

You're not paranoid - just not applying physics.

PS When drying cylinders post cleaning or testing I use steam to heat the cylinder then clean, dry air to blast out any residual moisture. I only need to heat the cylinder to around 80 deg C (measured with an IR thermometer) for this to be effective and that takes about 10 minutes of steam application to reach that point. When the cylinder reaches the correct temperature then any stickers peel off very easily.

---------- Post added April 23rd, 2015 at 10:26 AM ----------

I do a lot of VIPs - all the VIPs for the shop where I also currently teach. ... (plus, I agree with the point of dumpsterdiver's comment).

Seriously? How exactly do you "qualify" to do VIP if you know nothing about basic cylinder metallurgy?

 

[spectrum]

The common hair dyer is the simplest common tool and it leaves no puddles nor will you get scalded. A little warmth and it just lifts off. You may need a little solvent to remove glue residue and so the cylinder is dead clean to accept the new sticker. After seeing the Tom foolery some shops went through (wire wheels, razors, buffing tools)I started doing the prep step for them. I remove the sticker and slowly bleed the cylinder down to a minimal holding pressure. that way they aren't oppening a self chilled cylinder /condenser.

Pete

 

[Oldbear]

This thread reminds me just how I like to keep my personal tanks sticker free, besides the Viz Inspection. I hate seeing tanks look like the village derelict's car.

 

[Hickdive]

The common hair dyer is the simplest common tool and it leaves no puddles nor will you get scalded.
Pete

I prefer not to have hairdryers in a cylinder testing/cleaning area. There are an awful lot of puddles there.

 

[Colliam7]

Seriously? How exactly do you "qualify" to do VIP if you know nothing about basic cylinder metallurgy?

Inane and silly comments like this are always welcome, they offer an opportunity for a chuckle in the morning. Dumpster's comment was basically - don't do it (heat or chemicals). I agree. I have never found it necessary to use heat to get a sticker off, nor to use chemicals to get a sticker off. As to whether you affect the integrity of the metal with a blow dryer, there are no data to suggest that you do.

 

[Hickdive]

Inane and silly comments like this are always welcome, they offer an opportunity for a chuckle in the morning. Dumpster's comment was basically - don't do it (heat or chemicals). I agree. I have never found it necessary to use heat to get a sticker off, nor to use chemicals to get a sticker off. As to whether you affect the integrity of the metal with a blow dryer, there are no data to suggest that you do.

So, in short, you don't know anything about cylinder metallurgy and it isn't necessary for VIP "inspectors" to know anything. That's fair enough; under the circumstances scraping the stickers off is with a tool is about the limit of what I'd expect you to do.

 

[NAM001]

If you took the course and you are STILL UP TO DATE ?????? then order more stickers from PSI. They are cheap.

To turn this thread around... When I took my PSI course I got a roll of PSI stickers to use but most shops have custom stickers with their contact info on them. I have a great printer but if I wanted to have more stickers printed is their a material/adhesive that would stay on but not be a PITA to get off? I'm thinking a vinyl sticker over a paper one. Any suggestions?