Crazy Question

[jokers]

Is it possible to rewrap an air tank? I know anything is possible given enough money and but i am more curios if it has been done or is regularly done? As i understand it in simple terms a 4500 psi tank is pressed, formed, wrapped in carbon fiber, epoxied, wrapped in a label, sanded and then epoxied and gel coated. I would love to see a how its made for a paintball tank in particular not just an scba. But with that in mind, if a person were to sand off the outer layer of epoxy and epoxy on a new label would it work and has it been done? I am not sure i would want to do it and even less sure i would want it done but it is something that i was just curious about.

SCBA video for those who are curious about the video i mentioned.

[DocsMachine]

Simply put: Absolutely not.

Even if you had or made all the equipment and materials to re-wrap it properly, there's a heavy certification that goes along with them. You can't just "slap a label" on- that label certifies it was made to accepted specifications, tested using qualified procedures, etc. etc. You can't just 'say you did', actual inspectors have to check out your process and give it an official okay.

It'd be like printing your own medical diploma and then going to your local hospital and asking to help on some open-heart surgery.

Doc.

[pintbuster]

Are you asking if it would be safe, or if it would be certified?
A tank at 4 years 364 days is safe and certified, but the same tank 2 days later is unsafe and uncertified.
I don't agree with it, but I also don't know how to go about fixing it.

[jokers]

pintbuster I know it would not be safe or certified i have no plans to do it or see it done i was just curious if it had been done?
While i do not agree with the standard that a 150 dollar tank only lasts 15 years i agree with the logic of having a tank re-certified every 5 years to make sure it is still working correctly. I also understand that you have to have some point that you call it and even if you can get another 5 years out of most tanks you are putting yourself and others at risk of bodily harm so why push it.
I think i worded my question poorly as there is no way i would attempt to relabel or really do anything with a tank short of use it during it's certified operating lifespan i just wondered if it had been done or was done maybe outside the US.

[JeeperCreeper]

When your tires on your car wear out, do you try to get them recapped or do you just buy new ones? Even better would you try to recap your own tires and then trust that they wont fail on you? No you just buy new ones.

[superman]

personal tires no, but 18 wheelers do often retread tires. just so you know.
I do agree rewrapping a tank is a bad idea.

[JeeperCreeper]

I do know there are retreads for big tires like that. The point is truckers arent gluing them together themselves

[Tarsun2]

high pressure tanks are deceiving in their potential devastation.

a mile from my job was Oprandys. you can google their tank explosion incident (2016). this was a small fire extinguisher that was being filled with air. Something went wrong and the tank exploded. i used to go there to have my paintball tanks certified...
iirc both employees died; one from the injuries and the other from suicide after the incident. the whole building was stripped and gutted due to so much "biologic material" being everywhere.
whats crazy is that a few days prior, i dropped off an old tank with a nitro-duck reg to be tested. i did tell them that it was pretty old and that if its not good in the least, just let me know. i was realllly nervous thinking it was THAT tank.
i think they were running behind and trying to catch up, so they were filling tanks outside of the blast chamber. and that was the one that took off...

I see thanks completely different after that. Hell, dry ice in a 2L soda bottle is INSANE. i cant imagine a 4.5k tank going off...
had a tank roll off the table at work and hit the ground. everyone close nearly leapt out of their chair to dive on the floor. lol

[DocsMachine]

Yep. We are often WAY too lax about the potential danger of air tanks.

Just before I got into paintball, I was in a dive shop with friens, and they had a magazine article copied and hanging on the wall. Seems at some point someone had had a couple of SCUBA tanks powder coated, since they were tired of the paint always getting chipped. Next time they had them filled, one of them exploded, killing at least one person.

The aluminum in the tanks is heat-treated, and gets a good amount of it's strength from that. If it gets annealed- like in a powder coating oven- a good deal of the strength is lost, and it can burst even under normal fill pressures.

And in this sport, we have people "slam filling" 4,500 psi tanks willy-nilly as common and without thought as if they were stopping to take a drink of water.

There's a reason that A, tanks are so expensive, comparatively, and B, that they have to be taken out of service after a set period.

Doc.

[devilzcall]

Even though I got into the hobby playing with a tank that was gifted to me because it was out of certification and only had 2-3 years to its final date, I'd feel a lot safer if in my 3 years of play anyone had ever bothered to look at itt and told me to get a new one

[Siress]

huh... my tanks have all been checked reverently by every fill station attendee. Fields that let players fill their own are a serious problem in some areas, though. Insurance had clamped down on that at one field I went to sometime around '09 so I hope it's not as prevalent these days.

[JeeperCreeper]

I've even heard a player at a local field say his tank was 3 years out of date like it was normal. I may make a comment next time I go