A backward glance at the coating industry

Citation

Cox, W. (2002), "A backward glance at the coating industry", Anti-Corrosion Methods and Materials, Vol. 49 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/acmm.2002.12849bab.001

A backward glance at the coating industry

I decided that my column for this issue could be usefully employed with a look at the coating industry. I'd arranged for Fred Palmer to meet with Terry Savage, the Technical Editor of Emerald's "Pigment and Resin Technology", as well as of "Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology" and ACMM. Fred's been involved in the coating business for the better part of forty years and it was a nice opportunity to review progress in the industry for Judith Harvey, the new Head of Editorial here at Emerald, and Vicky Williams, the Managing Editor of ACMM, AEAT and P&RT.

Fred was President of the Institute and rejuvenated the National Conference as the premier annual ICorr revenue-generating event. He also had the foresight to support the new ICorr Painting and Coating Inspector Training and Certification Scheme that have proven since to be such an important route to qualification for members of the paint industry. He retired "again" a year or so ago, (this time as Senior Consultant to Hyperlast, formerly McPhersons and then Kemira Coatings), but it was typical that on the day we met in London he'd already been out to lunch with a client to support his successor at Hyperlast.

The first issue we discussed was the overall size of the coating industry. Fred's interest in the paint industry began at Goodlass Wall, but over the past 20 years or so has focussed on coating and lining systems for use in the oil and gas production area, with an emphasis on high performance coating and lining system specification, application, and maintenance painting. He commented that, in terms of tons of paint applied per annum, the industry probably hasn't contracted but there are now far fewer companies operating in the field, and the leading players come from the USA, UK, Germany and Japan. Early coatings tended to be somewhat "surface tolerant" - red lead based, and so on. However, these were largely superseded by the vinyl ester, epoxy and polyurethane-type coatings, which give much better service life, especially under arduous service conditions. In the early years of the use of these more complex systems there had been some confusion in the use of "hardeners" and "accelerators". Prior to their introduction, painters were accustomed to making up their own primers and undercoats, using "thinners" to obtain the consistency of paint they required for each process and then adding varnish to the paint in order to provide a glossy topcoat. These days, paints tended to be ready to apply, (i.e. premixed), rather than dependent upon the mixing skills of the applicator or operative.

Although there had been some developments in paint technology during the 1950's and 60's, the really major improvements had been recognition of the importance of good surface preparation, and this had been responsible for the very much extended service life of coatings and linings in use in the oil and gas production industry. During the 1970's and early 80's, paint inspection had been very prevalent. However, it was much less of a feature these days and the emphasis now was much more for the quality of coating application to be the responsibility of the site contractor, rather than any third-party inspection company. This did not remove the need for skilled inspection; rather it shifted the emphasis for that expertise to be with the coating contractor, rather than for it to be the responsibility of a third-party inspection company.

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in extending the service life of coatings, and extending the intervals between maintenance painting. In offshore service, this meant that coatings systems were designed wherever possible to last the life of the facility. The price of transportation and storage of paint on offshore structures, as well as the cost and difficulty of applying the coatings on such structures meant that, in general, rig owners/operators are reluctant to fund maintenance painting, and the work is almost too unpredictable to provide a reliable source of income for painting contractors. Additionally, with rigs are not on show on a day-to-day basis, and hence there is little incentive on the owners to keep them aesthetically pleasing. In consequence, if a rig is nearing the end of its service life there is little necessity or benefit in keeping it painted as it may as well be allowed to corrode away, even if that might appear unsightly.

In the case of buried pipelines, the emphasis is on the initial installation of a good quality coating that will last the life of the pipeline without necessity for refurbishment or recoating. Pipeline refurbishment may be undertaken from time to time but the more recent trend is for both the pipeline and the external coating system (and perhaps the CP system) to be designed for the application to last for the service life of the line. The whole installation is scrapped or replaced with a brand-new pipeline and coating system at the end of its service life.

In an interesting aside, Fred pointed out that it could be beneficial in some circumstances, for example when considering onshore storage tanks, for more frequent maintenance painting to be undertaken, such that assets were maintained in good condition, rather than postponing action until complete surface preparation would be necessary. Where the condition of maintenance paint had been ignored to the point that overpainting would be inappropriate, it could be cost-effective to let the degradation progress, as complete surface re-preparation would be necessary before satisfactory re-coating could be achieved.

Looking to the future, he felt that future developments are likely to continue to be aimed at extending the periods between recoating, and extending the overall service life of coatings, rather than in developments of more complex paint formulations, or in the use of so-called surface tolerant coatings. Good quality paint, of an appropriate type, properly applied over a carefully prepared substrate, were the keys to achieving the best service performance. There were some new formulations, such as thesiloxanes for example, and no doubt there would continue to be a stream of such developments. However, by far the greatest improvement in paint and coating technology had been in understanding and implementing procedures that delivered good quality in each of the above-mentioned stages of coating use, and it seems probable that continued attention in these areas will be the primary trend in coming years.

Fred's still very much involved on an informal basis with coatings and the coating industry. Based in London as he is, he has a never-ending succession of visitors and friends with whom he swaps stories, reminisces over past times and former colleagues, remembers good installations and not-so-good ones, and helps users and vendors alike with friendly advice on where to find appropriate expertise, what to watch out for, and where to find the best information. It is rare to find so experienced, and good humoured a person. At the end of it, you come away with astute perceptions, good- natured prodding, and a fair sprinkling of fresh ideas on how best to proceed with the next phase of whatever coating-related issue.

And that's the essence of this technical community. The corrosion world is sufficiently small that with effort you can get to know many of the players around the world. If you're lucky, you can even work with them. People like Fred Palmer make it enjoyable and satisfying - we should look forward to continued interaction with such friends and colleagues, which will perhaps also help to improve the understanding and implementation of good corrosion control technology.

SincerelyWilliam Cox