Paint Factory

A paint factory that did not survive modernization.

 

A chemical plant had closed down. A group of urban explorers immediately headed to it.

The factory's laboratory did not impress them.

The control room was remarkable by the neighboring signs "No Smoking" on one of the counters and "Smoking Area" above the operator's desk.

Any production facility is designed so that energy consumption for the transportation of materials, semi-products, products, and other things should be minimal. This is a rule for machine building, mayonnaise production, or the chemical industry. This is why the top floor is used as a warehouse for raw materials. Gravity transported them to the chemical apparatuses on the floors below and then helped to pack the paint on the ground floor.

On this floor are dosing devices such as scales and batchers.

The batchers are connected to the liquid feedstock tanks in the "attic". We will not go there because it's dark, slippery, and scary. The materials that didn't have enough room on the floor above are stored in the tanks here.

This half of the floor stores solvents.

There's a fire line netting around the ceiling, as well as air intakes are everywhere.

A small reactor for mixing solvents in the right proportions.

A vintage pressure gauge connected to the system.

Behind the window are ventilation pipes that take in air from the building and carry it down to the absorbers.

On the floor below are the first-stage reactors.

A contrasting combination of rust, oil, and warm morning sun.

Mixer drive.

Intermediate accumulators so that the product flows down without bubbles.

These storages are unsigned but they were probably used for semi-products or dyes.

Such cute little Nutsche filters for purifying.

We go down one more floor.

There are more Nutsche filters but bigger.

Looking at these high-pressure reactors in the annex to the main workshop, I recalled a story from one of my professors at the university. In the 70s, one chemical plant was putting in operation a new line with high-efficiency high-pressure reactors. For some reason, the installation of one of them was compromised, so during a test run at two hundred atmospheres, the reactor lid ejected to the stars through the roof of the workshop. A week after the incident there were reports in the local newspaper from witnesses that a UFO was spotted in the sky above the factory :)

The ventilation system is separated from the central part of the building. Each floor has its own room. Here is one of them.

Let's move on to the reactors of the second stage of synthesis.

It is almost dawn.

Reactor status indicators.

These hose and tube are for product suction while cleaning the reactor.

The most beautiful part of the workshop.

Reactors of all sizes.

You can open the lids and smell the paint.

The small reactors where the concentrate and solvent are mixed. Then the paint was sent to the packing area.

The packing area is dismantled.

It's time to go out.

Until we meet again!