Maintenance Solutions

Planned maintenance is a proven way to extend paint life but, its acceptance is limited due high labor costs and the difficultly for the evaluation of aged coatings for repair. Today, there are four major classifications for coating maintenance.

Reactive maintenance (Fix it when it fails) is by far the most widely used practice for corrosion management.  Visible rust is the primary reason for corrosion repairs, but rust indicates complete coating failure has occurred and irreversible corrosion damage has begun.

Preventive Maintenance   Preventive maintenance is an operation performed to prevent a more serious future failure but, its use is limited due to labor expense and the difficultly for the evaluation of aged coatings for repair.

Proactive Maintenance   Proactive operations are the next step to preventive maintenance.  Preventive support focuses on identifying the main reasons for coating failure before it begins then, root cause analysis is used to initiate coating modifications or changes to improve future maintenance support.

Proactive Maintenance NDT   Proactive coating maintenance is similar to proactive maintenance but includes black light UV inspection (a form of non-destructive testing NDT). Black light has been used for decades to locate metal stress cracks, welding defects, fluid leaks, and other problems that can’t be seen by normal visual inspections.

PC/NDT is based on the formulation of protective coatings for black light UV fluorescence.  Black light quality control allows workers to locate and define coating defects before complete system failure occurs and serious corrosion damage begins.  PC/NDT removes the cost, production, and technical problems that have limited coating maintenance in the past.

Note, UV black light inspection increase visual identification of coating defects up to 1000 % compared to visual inspections.

PC/NDT is based on the formulation of protective coatings for black light UV fluorescence.  Black light quality control allows workers to locate and define coating defects for real time repairs before complete system failure occurs and serious corrosion damage begins.  PC/NDT removes the cost, production, and technical problems that have limited coating maintenance in the past. (See below link)

The Edison Principal – Corrosion Prevention | Maintenance World

A 2002 Government report estimated the total cost of corrosion at $550 billion.  This study also stated that 25 to 30 % could be prevented with improved painting practices.  PC/NDT maintenance programs could achieve these savings.

A classroom presentation followed by a hands-on lab demonstration has been developed and one of the most interesting parts of this course is the identification of film coverage defects at primary corrosion sites (welds, joints, corners, cracks, fasteners, etc.).  Mr. Deardorff has found that virtually none of the current inspection tools are effective for checking the quality of coatings applied over primary corrosion sites.

Program Advantages

• Increased service life for manufactured products and steel structures
• Reduced corrosion related repairs, downtime, and early replacement costs
• Improved asset performance and operational readiness
• Improved worker safety and moral
• Reduced material waste and disposal costs
• Reduced levels for VOC’s, HAP’s, and other forms of environmental pollution.
• Improved remanufacturing and recycling potential
• Lean engineering, reduced need to overdesign structures to resist corrosion
• Improved trade balance. U.S. products that last longer reduce foreign imports.
• New jobs for U.S. workers trained in maintenance programs.
• Substantial energy savings for corrosion prevention by protective coatings.

Savings comparison based on corrosion related repairs or replacements.

• 0%   Reactive
• 25% to 35% Preventive
• 45% to 55% Predictive
• 60% to 95% RCM & root cause analysis