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Coating Failure

demineralized water storage tank

Installation Woes of a Lining in a Demineralized Water Storage Tank

Coating Application, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Lab Testing, Tanks /

This month’s case from the F-Files concerns the application of a high performance liner in a steel demineralized water storage tank, or a demin tank.  Demineralized (purified) water can be particularly aggressive in service when even minute traces of soluble salt contamination are present on a coated substrate.  Therefore is not uncommon to see soluble […]

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Concrete Coating Failure

Concrete Floor Coatings Forensics Case History — Part 1, Field Investigation Phase

Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Concrete Floors /

The field phase of this concrete floor coatings forensics case history included five steps: project familiarization and interview; moisture detection; coating thickness measurements; adhesion testing; and microscopic examination, sample collection and photographic documentation.This edition of the F-Files presents the field investigation undertaken to determine the cause of a concrete floor coating failure (Fig. 1). The

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weathered coating

Keeping Coatings in the Game

Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Maintenance Painting /

Testing at five-major league baseball stadiums offers insights into paint and coatings performance While grand architectural and aesthetic considerations for buildings may be less common than in past generations, they still matter to professional and collegiate sports stadium owners. They have important fan bases to consider. Keeping stadium structural steel looking sharp can be as

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coating inspection of Saponification

Saponification: From Paint to the Grave

2 Comments / Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Lab Testing /

At its very basic level, saponification is the term given to the process in which vegetable oils and animal fats are converted into soap. We recognize soaps as wax-like products, modified through the addition of fragrances and skin-care additives (emollients) to become consumer cleaning and bathing products. The essential step in the soap-making process is

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peeling paint on concrete

Why New Coatings Fail on Old Concrete Floors

Buildings, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Concrete Floors, Moisture /

While it’s hard to put an exact price tag on what concrete-floor coating failures cost building owners, contractors and retailers each year, two things are clear. First, these failures, nearly all of them avoidable, happen a lot. Second, if it happens to you, it costs too much. Concrete is a complex material and many issues

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multi component coatings

Incorrect Mixing of Multi-Component Coatings

1 Comment / Coating Application, Coating Failure, Coatings, Lab Testing /

Many important industrial coatings are two- or even three-component products (also referred to as two-pack, 2K, or three-pack, 3K) in which a chemical reaction between the components results in a coating film. The components are packaged separately and require mixing at a specific ratio to form the desired final product. The compositions of the materials

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Coating Failure

Clues to a Coating Failure

7 Comments / Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Inspection, Lab Testing, Roofs /

A consultant follows the facts to discover why perfectly good, recently applied paint fell from a new steel ceiling and to find the source of the coating failure. It wasn’t like the sky was falling, but when large pieces of paint dropped from the roof deck onto machinery being installed in a newly built manufacturing

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Paint Consulting

The Case of Bubbles, and Pinholes, and Blisters, Oh My! -Coating Condition Assessment

Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Lab Testing /

This month’s Case from the F-Files describes the problem of bubbles, pinholes, and blisters in a polyurethane finish coat applied to new structural steel members at a coal-fired power generation plant. Many of the pinholes and bubbles were so small that they were difficult to detect with the unaided eye. Many of the largest blisters

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Metal Roof Repair

Failure Analysis: When Metal Roof Coatings Fail

1 Comment / Buildings, Coating Assessment, Coating Failure, Coatings, Commercial, Roofs /

A variety of coating system choices can be applied to metal roofing, including acrylic, epoxy/polyurethane, and fluoropolymer systems. Specifications frequently call for fluoropolymer coatings, which are considered to offer the best performance in long-term weathering resistance. Roof panels are fabricated from sheet-metal substrates such as steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, and other metals. Galvanized steel (a

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