The Benefits of Surface Preparation and Coating Technology

Water is an element that’s essential for life and transportation. Without the right precautions, the element is also destructive and can lead to structural weakness on marine vessels, as well as financial and logistical inefficiencies. By ensuring proper surface preparation and coatings with the help of marine temporary climate solutions, your maintenance efforts will result in greater productivity and fewer repairs.

The Purpose of Surface Preparation and Coatings

Protective coatings on a marine vessel protect its substrate from water, rust, acids, temperature extremes, and other elements that could cause corrosion and degradation. Surface preparation involves the use of marine temporary climate control solutions, such as heaters and dehumidifiers, to ensure that the environment surrounding the surface in question promotes a successful coating application.

For the best results, an organization should employ marine temporary climate solutions from the beginning of the surface preparation stages because a vessel’s surface is the most important factor in a protective coating’s performance. Common surface preparation techniques include:

• Rotary wire brushing: Wire brushes remove powdery rust, but not rust scale, from a surface
• Rotary power disking: Silicon carbide disks clean irregular and pitted surfaces
• Hydroblasting: High-pressured jets of water clean surfaces and blast off oil, dirt, sand, salt, paint, and rust without problems related to spent abrasives and dust
• Abrasive blast cleaning: Compressed air removes salt, paint, rust, mill scale, dirt and other contaminants to create a rough surface that’s ready for a coating application
• Solvent cleaning: Detergents and chemicals remove oil, grease, and dirt from the surface before an individual employs blast cleaning techniques
• Mechanical de-scaling: Blades or pounding-type tools remove thick scale and rust buildups

During the coating application stages, temporary climate solutions help coatings dry and cure within an appropriate amount of time, reduce the need for paint-ups, prevent condensation and ensure a coating’s proper adhesion. Since temporary climate control solutions create the ideal conditions for preparing and coating surfaces, workers can complete tasks regardless of the weather outside.

When to Schedule Surface Preparation and Coatings

Good times to prepare and coat the surfaces on a vessel are during:

• The shipbuilding process
• Repairs
• Scheduled maintenance
• Restorations
• Dry-dock periods

Benefits of Surface Preparation and Coatings

• Corrosion prevention: Corrosion is a multi-billion dollar problem on marine vessels. According to a 2011 article in Bloomberg Businessweek, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps spend over $6 million annually on corrosion-related issues. A well-prepared surface is free of soluble materials that could cause surface coatings to fail prematurely and reduce a vessel’s lifespan.
• Reduced drag: Successful surface coatings prevent the growth of coral, algae, barnacles, and other marine life on the bottom of a vessel. The growth of organisms on a ship can increase its weight, reduce fuel efficiency and increase the vessel’s maintenance needs.
• Lowered maintenance costs: When you protect a vessel’s surface during the cleaning and preparation stages using temporary climate control solutions, you are better able to ensure the protective coating’s successful application, drying, and curing. In turn, the coating will last longer and reduce a vessel’s maintenance costs by up to 20 percent.
• Meet deadlines: When conditions are too humid, dry, cold, or warm, a vessel’s surface is vulnerable to rust and recontamination. The conditions may also affect drying and curing times. When you control the environment surrounding a vessel, coating applications are more predictable and reliable and prevent time-consuming paint-ups. 

Whether you’re building a new vessel or performing maintenance and repairs, surface preparation and coating is essential to the craft’s performance and its crew’s wellbeing. To learn about the best marine temporary climate solutions for your application, get in touch with Polygon’s experienced specialists. We’ll create a custom plan that maximizes your project’s quality and efficiency. 

 [Alessandro Rossi via CC License 2.0]