Marine
Content Chapters
Offshore Platforms & Wind Turbines
The offshore oil and wind industries have common cause in their fight against corrosion. Damage leading to complete or partial shutdowns of either type of facility can be very detrimental to their operations and the financial bottom line. Corrosion in offshore facilities is obviously mostly due to the nature of the location. Seawater and sea spray makes for a potent corrosion initiator. In the corrosion electrochemical process, the seawater acts as the electrolyte and when it comes into contact with different material components (metals) with different electrochemical potentials, it forms an electrochemical cell and corrosion proceeds. To counter this corrosion, protective marine coatings (often epoxy) are used to prevent the onset of corrosion. The coating acts as a barrier to protect the metal surface from attack by invasive corrosion initiating species such as chloride ions from seawater. However the coatings by themselves are not completely impermeable to penetration by seawater so moisture ingress is inevitable. To prevent corrosion occurring after the penetration of seawater a corrosion inhibitor is required. The splash zone directly above the water line is the most corrosive area and as such often seem to be rusted on oil platforms and wind turbines.
The use of Inhibispheres® can help protect offshore assets in a number of ways. The addition of Inhibispheres® to a standard protective marine coating can extend the lifetime of the coating and as such extend the lifetime of the asset. Alternatively, these extended lifetime coatings could allow for an increase intime between maintenance intervals between recoating. Coating at sea can be an expensive and time consuming activity. Inhibispheres® can give extra security to your coating system to help give lasting protection from the corrosive offshore seawater environment.
Shipping
Marine protective coatings represent a multibillion dollar global market. The global shipping industry is essential to modern life and free trade. Globalisation is centred on the logistics of moving large amounts of goods from one part of the world to another and this is currently best achieved via shipping in large container ships. These larger and larger vessels require painting to prevent corrosion on the hull. Most ships are made from steel which has a propensity towards corroding when exposed to saltwater. The hull of the ship in particular is exposed to saltwater 24 hours a day. In fact, the high moisture salt laden atmosphere encountered at sea (and especially in the splash zone just above the water line), it creates the perfect environment for corrosion. The appearance of rust on a ship’s hull is a common sight. Corrosion has a significant impact not just on the usefulness of the ship but its safety.
The inclusion of Inhibispheres® into a protective coating can help increase the lifetime of the asset as well as reduce the maintenance cycle. The time in dry dock for a ship can be reduced by increasing the time between maintenance cycles as well as reducing the time required for the asset to be in drydock. This can be achieved through a reduction in the number of coats, which can be enabled using Inhibispheres®.
Inhibispheres® from Ceramisphere offer a step change in the corrosion protection solutions for coating formulators in the marine coating industry.
