An industrial coating is a paint or coating defined by its protective, rather than its aesthetic properties, although it can provide both.
The most common use of industrial coatings is for corrosion control of steel structures such as offshore platforms, bridges and underground pipelines. Other functions include intumescent coatings for fire resistance. The most common polymers used in industrial coatings are polyurethane, epoxy and moisture-cure urethane. Another highly common polymer used in industrial coating is a fluoropolymer. There are many types of industrial coatings including inorganic zinc, phosphate, and Xylan and PVD coatings.
NACE International and The Society for Protective Coatings (SSPC) are professional organizations involved in the industrial coatings industry.
Industrial coatings are often composites of various substances. For example Xylan dry-film lubricants are composites of fluoropolymers (typically PTFE, PFA, and FEP) and reinforcing thermoset polyimide and polyamide binder resins initially suspended in a variety of solvents (such as ethyl acetate, xylene, dimethlformamide, and N-methyl 2-yrrolidone).
A typical coating system may include a primer, an intermediate coat, and a top coat. The polymer film acts as a physical barrier between the steel substrate and the corrosive environment such as atmosphere, water and soil. Industrial coatings are also available as garage floor coatings such as epoxy, polyurea, and polyaspartic.
Famous quotes containing the words industrial and/or coating:
“The Enormous Room seems to me to be the book that has nearest approached the mood of reckless adventure in which men will reach the white heat of imagination needed to fuse the soggy disjointed complexity of the industrial life about us into seething fluid of creation. There can be no more playing safe.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The world is eaten up by boredom.... You can’t see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn’t even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands. To shake off this drizzle of ashes you must be for ever on the go. And so people are always “on the go.””
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948)