Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2003)

Coatings & Corrosion Control wet/dry and warm/cold cycles," says

Kent Holm of Sigma Coatings in

Denmark.

Pure epoxies are superior to epoxy coatings with cheaper modifying resins (such as coal tar), and they last longer and corrode less. "Pure epoxies perform more consistently throughout the coat- ing's lifetime than modified or coal tar epoxies. Even though pure epoxies can be 20-50 percent more expensive than modified epoxies. cost savings on pro- ductivity at new-build, as well as a reduced need for maintenance, will more than make up for the price differ- ence, " says Joey Keasberrv of Sigma

Coatings.

The SigmaPrime multipurpose anti- corrosive epoxy coating is used for both new construction and maintenance and can be used virtually anywhere, on both internals and external areas.

In water ballast tank surfaces, these pure epoxy coatings are as good as when new a decade later. "Pure epoxies have an expected lifetime of 20-25 years as opposed to modified epoxies. which have a life expectancy of 8-15 years.

Obviously, this very much depends on the application itself. Poor application will reduce the coating's lifetime." says

Keasberry.

Ballast tanks, especially those located in the double bottom, generally speaking have limited access during the ship's service life. Repairs required because these tanks have rusted or corroded are usually expensive. However, using the right coating can mean that the tank may never need repair or repainting.

Even with uniformly standard prod- ucts. some coatings may perform better than others on various ships under cer- tain unique conditions. To be certain that a customer can get exactly the coat- ing that has been proven to work best, the coatings have been "fingerprinted" by a laboratory.

Sigma's general marketing manager

Paul Cain explains: "Of course we were happy to agree to this fingerprinting.

When an owner has invested time, effort and money in a project it is understand- able that he wants to be sure he is getting exactly the coating he has carefully cho- sen."

Too much paint is as bad as too little.

A thin coat won't properly bond with the base surface, nor will it protect it.

Conversely, a thick coat will crack and expose the surface to corrosion.

In new construction, the total purchase cost of the coating is a small percentage of the total vessel cost, typically in the region of one-and-a-half to two percent but this increases to 8-10 percent when the costs of surface preparation and coating application are included.

Furthermore, says Cain, painting a new ship is time intensive, typically be in the region of 15-20 percent of the total time required to complete the vessel, which includes the entire coating process of application, surface preparation and inspection. "Using quick drying paints such as SigmaPrime can significantly boost production speed at newbuilding yards." The fewer types of primers and paints, the faster and cheaper it is to complete a vessel. "Coatings have traditionally been a major bottleneck in the new construc- tion of vessels. It's been calculated that when this process of using one primer

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