Improving Infrastructure – Corrosion Protection Coatings For Pipelines and Rail Cars

By Cynthia Challener

Wherever metal is used, corrosion is an issue, and coatings are relied upon to provide protection against such damage. Many corrosion protection coatings are also expected to be multifunctional, offering additional resistance to abrasion, impact, and chemicals, as well as aesthetics in terms of high gloss and color matching. For pipeline and rail applications of all kinds, there is also a demand for increased product life cycle performance and value in use.

Coating manufacturers are respond­ing with new liquid and powder coating technologies that are easier to apply, reduce the number of coats, require less energy, and/or have a greater application window-all with the goal of reducing the application time and cost, while still maintaining or improving the desired level of performance.

PROTECTING PIPELINES
Increasing miles of pipeline are being installed around the world to carry potable and waste wa­ter, oil and gas products, mining fluids, and other liquids and gases. The need for water pipelines is growing as emerging regions expand their infrastructure and developed regions begin to upgrade their existing and often failing systems. In addition, the shale gas boom in North America, Australia, and elsewhere is a major factor contributing to the installation of more pipelines in the energy sector.

In the U.S. in particular, the water delivery systems in most major cities are in lamentable condi­tion and require major repairs-with costs that far exceed the budgets of these municipalities, ac­cording to Rick Bradshaw, global director of Civil Infrastructure, Protective & Marine for The Sherwin ­Williams Company. In fact, in its “2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure,” the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. drinking water infrastructure a grade of D-. ”

With such a vast amount of investment needed to repair our water systems, it is becoming ever more important for coating manufacturers to bring greater value so that more can get done at an overall lower cost, and that has led to a focus on improving application efficiency and increasing the performance life­time of pipeline coatings,” Bradshaw remarks.