36 March 2016 • APC

Corrosion Preventiona New Market Niche?

If your business doesn’t offer corrosionprevention, repair and maintenance,

you are missing a massive segment of thepainting and coatings marketplace. Cor-rosion is such a massive problem; someestimates put it past $1 trillion in damageto the U.S. economy each year.

If you can help businesses extend thelives of their buildings, machinery andvehicles, your services will pay for them-selves many times over, making businessaccountants view your business as a prof-it generator rather than just an expense.

Longtime painting contractor JimDeardorff of Chilicothe, Missouri, hascreated a step-by-step corrosion preven-tion, repair and maintenance programpainting contractors can add to their ser-vices with only a small investment and ashort training course.

The ProblemMany businesses don’t know that they

can prevent rust and corrosion, or at leastdelay its impact on their buildings,machinery, vehicles or other equipment.Some businesses, especially farms thathave chemicals repeatedly come into con-tact with their machinery, simply acceptcorrosion as part of the business modeland replace or junk tractors, combinesand other machines every few years.

The SolutionIf a coatings professional explained to a

facilities manager or a business’ accoun-tant how a company could prevent corro-sion, or at least extend the life of assetsthrough a coatings maintenance pro-gram, the business would greatly improveits ability to reduce its asset losses.

Turning CorporateLemons Into PaintingContractor Lemonade

This pickup truck has been cleaned and treated with Permanon nanocoating. In additionto protecting the vehicle from rust, it reduces washing time by 80 percent and helpsprevent overspray from sticking. Any overspray on the vehicle can easily be removed by Japanese clay bar cleaning.

Deardorff claims the LCS system, using twice-a-year cleaning and thin-film maintenance, canreduce rust damage to this $200,000 John Deere ligquid fertilizer machine by 80 percent.

This CASE dry fertilizer applicator sells for approximately $300,000. According to Dear-dorff, it will have a trade-in value of less than $10,000 and a service life of less 10 yearsdue, in large part, to corrosion and wear.

AMERICAN PAINTING CONTRACTOR • March 2016 37

The Lifetime Coating SystemIn the early 1990s, painting and coat-

ings professional Jim Deardorff saw themassive need for businesses to addresscorrosion, and he began experimentingwith ways to help prevent it — or at thevery least delay corrosion’s asset-destroy-ing impact. After years of trying differentcoatings, inspection techniques and pre-vention methods, Deardorff created aprevention and maintenance system thathelps extend the life of coatings beyondthe life of an asset.

His Lifetime Coating System (LCS) is apreventive maintenance programdesigned to protect a variety of businessand infrastructure (e.g., bridges) assetsthrough better coatings application andmaintenance. The program consists of aproactive maintenance system that keepscoatings protecting assets rather than thereactive maintenance system many busi-nesses use to address asset failure aftercorrosion occurs.

Potential for Painting ContractorsThe National Association of Corrosion

Engineers estimates that as much as 30percent of all corrosion-related damagecan be eliminated with improved paintingpractices, and this work would provide$250 billion to $300 billion worth of pro-jects to painting and coatings contractors.

A simple way to reduce asset ownershipcosts and to increase corporate profits isto extend the lives of assets by using coat-ings that last longer. “The key for busi-nesses to prevent the loss of assets due tocorrosion is to protect assets’ coatings, notjust their base metals,” says Deardorff.However, the equipment and expertiserequired to expertly address corrosionhave traditionally been too significant forthe average painting contractor — untilthe creation of the Lifetime Coating Sys-tem, according to Deardorff.

“Whereas large industrial painting

companies require a massive investmentin equipment and trained personal, myprogram allows one- or two-man crews todo this work,” says Deardorff. “There is atremendous market available in this spacefor painting contractors if they know howto sell preventive maintenance. LCS canprovide a business a 50-to-1 return oninvestment for proactive maintenancecleaning and recoating before rust begins.This is because it is a proactive programthat maintains coatings rather than areactive program that repairs rust.”

Costs to Offer LCS Program“Major painting projects rely heavily on

production equipment such as airlesssprayers, sandblasters, etc.,” says Dear-dorff. “Since my maintenance conceptdeals with the conditions that cause paintfailure, the equipment requirements tooffer the LCS program to businesses areminimal.” Deardorff says the tools neededto manage an LCS program include:

• A wire brush.• A paintbrush.• A pump-up sprayer.• A rust converter.• Cleaning products.• Exterior clear-coat products.• A black light.

Deardorff offers in-person training forpainting contractors wanting to learn theLCS program, charging approximately$1,000 per training session.

About the Lifetime Coating SystemLCS Program PartsSurface Preparation

Surface preparation is the foundation forcoating performance. LCS recommends theuse of improved surface preparation stan-dards to further clean and condition themetal substrate to reduce underfilm corro-sion. This reduces premature coating fail-ure due to corrosion at the metal or coatinginterface, and provides a sound foundationfor later recoating operations.

Permanent Primer Coats and ExpendableFinish Coats

LCS is based on the application of perma-nent foundation primer coats overcoated

with expendable finish coats, whereas tra-ditional maintenance focuses on the repairor replacement of the complete system.The majority of coating damage producedby sunlight, weathering, abrasion, orchemical or biological attack will beabsorbed by the finish coat, which can berepaired or replaced as needed.

Quality ControlOne or more separate coats of the LCS

system are formulated by black light-acti-vated fluorescence. Safe and simple blacklight monitoring allows workers to easilylocate areas of premature coating failurelong before complete system failure occurs.Black light nondestructive testing is the only

quality control process that can match thespeed of modern spray painting operations,where thousands of square feet are coated ina single shift. Black light inspections can beperformed as fast as a worker can move theblack light and the human eye can follow.

Maintenance CleaningKeeping the painting surface clean is an

additional way to extend coating life. LCSrecommends regular cleaning of corro-sion-prone surfaces.

“Smart Dirt” CleaningA major problem with industrial clean-

ing is the inability of workers to visuallydetermine when a surface is truly clean.

This untreated steel panel shows excessiverust after 10 years of outdoor exposure.

After the back of the panel was treated with arust convertor and thin layer of clear-coat nano-coating, it shows almost no rust after three yearsoutdoors. Deardorff estimates this panel couldlast for 20 years with twice-a-year-maintenance.

Smart Dirt is a quality assurance processthat uses special cleaning materials con-taining a fluorescent tracer. This usesblack light verification to improve theeffectiveness of parts cleaning by ensuringcomplete coverage of a target surface.

Low-pressure/Low-impact (LPLM) Abrasive Cleaning

LPLM abrasive cleaning uses a combi-nation of hard, dense minerals to removeaged or damaged coatings while leavingsound coatings intact. The purpose is toreduce energy and material waste byselective abrasive blast cleaning.

Thin-film RecoatingThin-film recoating, when used in com-

bination with low-pressure/low-impactabrasive cleaning, maintains specified milthickness, protects the integrity of the orig-inal application, and minimizes waste andenvironmental pollution. The purpose isto reduce costs by eliminating the need tooverapply coating to ensure coverage.

NanocoatingsThe new generation of microthin exteri-

or clear coats improves the appearance andincreases the durability of factory-appliedcoatings. These coatings are based on thenanoscience or the creation and organiza-tion of materials, devices or systems at thenano level (one billionth of a meter).

PermanonOne new nanocoating from Germany,

Permanon, uses silicium S-14 as its pig-ment base. Silicium is a component ofglass and is the same material used to pro-duce modern computer chips. The appli-cation of Permanon over factory-appliedcoatings produces properties similar tohardened glass. The surface is chemicallyinert; dirt and dust will bond to treatedsurfaces, which are protected against water,acid rain and other types of chemical pol-lution. Permanon produces a hydrophobicsurface that repels moisture. Waterproof-ing a coated surface prevents moisturefrom being absorbed into the coating andmigrating to the underlying metal sub-strate. This protects the asset from coatingfailure and irreversible corrosion damage.

Surface modification at the microscop-ic level with silicium nanoparticles pro-duces a coating that is smoother and eas-ier to clean and stays clean longer.

Time ManagementCorrosion develops over time. The less

time between coating maintenance, theless likely corrosion will reach serious lev-els. Steel structures and manufacturedproducts have a number of irregular sur-faces, each with an individual rate of coat-ing failure. LCS is designed to make main-tenance manageable by performing simplerepairs at the early stages of coating failurerather than waiting until corrosion reach-es serious levels and requires a majorinvestment in labor and resources. A largepercentage of LCS operations involvecleaning, inspecting and system evaluatingin place of traditional recoating, resultingin higher productivity and reduced waste.

LCS is designed to reduce the amount ofenergy, labor and materials required forcomplete lifetime corrosion protection.Estimates show that one hour of LCSmaintenance can replace up to 50 hours ofcrisis painting involving the completeremoval of aged, damaged coatings fol-lowed by total reapplication. An 80 percentreduction in material waste can be expect-ed with LCS maintenance programs.

Reliability and True Sustainability

The responsibility for extended corro-sion prevention is divided between thecorrosion engineer, the coating manufac-turer, the applicator and the asset owner.Each has an important role in the LCSmaintenance program:

• Engineer — studies the applicationand develops the appropriate LCSspecification.

• Coating manufacturer — formulatesthe coating to meet the engineer’sguidelines.

• Applicator — applies new coatings tomeet LCS performance specifications.

• Owner — develops asset inventoriesand schedules, and records all paint-ing work.

Corrosion Maintenance Classifications Defined

Reactive MaintenanceAssets are allowed to operate to failure

before repairs are planned. The majorityof maintenance recoating is performedusing reactive maintenance.

Preventive MaintenanceRepairs or replacements are scheduled

at predetermined times. Work is based onmanufacturers’ recommendations, opera-tional histories and performance esti-mates. A small percentage of recoatingrepairs are performed under preventivemaintenance guidelines.

Predictive MaintenanceRepairs are based on current conditions

of assets. Predictive maintenance relies onprecise evaluation of component partsusing specialized inspection devices andhighly trained workers. Predictive main-tenance plans can virtually eliminateunplanned breakdowns, but inspectionequipment can be expensive. Currently,no recoating operations are performedusing predictive maintenance.

Reliability-centered Maintenance (RCM)With Root Cause Analysis

RCM considers the optimum mainte-nance strategy for an asset in its operatingenvironment and is based on regularinspections to determine when an assethas reached a predetermined unaccept-able level of performance. At this time,repairs or replacements are used to pre-vent a more costly failure. Maintenancepersonnel then use root cause analysis toidentify excessive wear points and makechanges to future maintenance operationsthrough design changes or part modifica-tions. No recoating repair operations useRCM maintenance concepts currently.

A comparison of savings based on partor system replacements resulting fromexcessive corrosion damage:

Reactive 0%Preventive 25% - 35%Predictive 45% - 55%RCM w/root cause analysis 60% - 80%

Jim Deardorff is president of SuperiorCompany, located in Chillicothe, Missouri.He has over 25 years’ experience in theapplication and maintenance of protectivecoatings. In 1991, Deardorff began to inves-tigate new ways to extend coating lifethrough planned maintenance programs.Since then, he has written more than 50articles on his work and regularly appearson RFD-TV, offering advice on new ways toprevent rust and corrosion damage to farmequipment and facilities.

38 March 2016 • APC