Emergency Repair for 2,200 Transformers — How a Steelworks Stopped Oil Leaks with LeakAid

Industry & Background

This case study features a large-scale steelworks. To power rolling mills, heat treatment, cranes and auxiliary equipment, the site operates around 2,200 power transformers. Some of the largest units contain as much as 8,000 L of transformer oil, so oil management is directly tied to the stability of the entire operation.

Many of these transformers are installed outdoors, and years of service gradually produce small oil leaks around bolts, gaskets and oil-seal areas. If left unattended, such leaks degrade insulation performance and pose environmental risks, so every leak must be stopped as soon as it is discovered.

Challenges

The fundamental fix for a leaking transformer is a full overhaul: shut the unit down, drain the oil, and replace the failing parts. But overhauls are expensive and time-consuming, so as a bridge, sites rely on emergency repairs that seal the leak with a sealant.

In practice, this "bridge" repair had its own serious problems:

• Sealants won't bond to oily surfaces — it is very difficult to fully degrease a leaking spot, and the sealant simply won't stick.
• Slow cure creates an "oil channel" — while the sealant is still curing, fresh oil weeps through and opens a path that never closes.
• Leaks come back — the same spot is repaired again and again, and only the workload grows.

With a plan to continue around 10 similar repairs every year, the site could not rely on a full overhaul each time. They needed an on-site, field-completable emergency repair that safely extended the service interval until the next planned overhaul.

Product Adopted: UV-Curing Repair Sealant "LeakAid"

The solution was the UV-curing repair sealant "LeakAid (LL-100-LACK)". Apply it to the leak point, shine the dedicated UV light on it, and it cures in just 1 second — a sealant designed from the ground up for field repair.

Three properties match transformer oil leak sites especially well:

• Applies directly to oil-wet surfaces — cures and bonds even where full degreasing is impractical, so it works on the exact oil-seal leaks that defeated conventional sealants.
• 1-second cure leaves no "oil channel" — there is effectively no waiting window for fresh oil to weep through and create a gap.
• No shutdown required — on-site maintenance staff can apply it while the transformer keeps running, safely extending the interval until the planned overhaul.

Results

After adopting LeakAid, the steelworks has seen the following outcomes:

• Oil-seal leaks are stopped on the spot — leaks that previously "just wouldn't stop" are now sealed in minutes without shutting the equipment down.
• The bridge to overhaul is secured — large-scale teardowns can be pushed back to a planned window, minimizing the impact on production.
• Repair costs dropped significantly — in-house maintenance handles the work, so outside contractor costs per unit are sharply reduced.
• A standard, fleet-wide repair method — a single, repeatable procedure any technician can follow, now built into the ongoing plan for around 10 repairs per year across the 2,200-unit fleet.

"Overhaul is required, but we can't stop the unit now" and "sealants just don't hold" are challenges shared by many manufacturing sites. LeakAid is earning high marks as a way to stop the leak without stopping the equipment.