Strategy

   The Box Coating Strategy focuses on developing best practices to select, qualify, apply and validate appropiate coating systems to provide corrosion protection for steel structures and assets. This is applicable for new projects and maintenance purposes. Recent projects have shown that there are still mismatches between specifications and the actual coating application. This can lead to high additional costs due to repair and rehabilitation of existing coating systems. The focus should be on the whole process from coating specification to coating application and quality control at sited and shops. There should be an integrated approach between engineers, project teams and asset owners on how to control the full coating process for corrosion protection of steel structures assets. 

The coating process is specified by local project and/or company specifications. At this level all required steps in the coating process are described. But in practice there are often discrepancies in the process, mainly based on wrong coating selection and not correct application/workmanship. It seems that during the actual coating application on site/shops there is not sufficient quality control to achieve the optimal performing coating system and final corrosion prevention.

Define simple coating specifications
By defining simple and less coating systems with less layers and describe this in a simple coating specification the chance of a succesfull coating application process and performance will be increased. Combining different ranges (onshore and offshore, carbon steel and stainless steel, non-insulated and insulated) will also decrease the complexity of the specifications. Based on these specifications a clear and simple Inspectio Test Plan should be used during coating application. The strategy should focus on using the optimum surface preparation (grit blasting vs other methods) and coating systems (surface tolerant) to make the coating application a success under operational plant conditions. This can lead to lower costs compared to conventional work procedures
 

Optimalisation of QA/QC during surface preparation and coating application
The ITP should be used as a guideline to perform QA/QC during the coating application process. The input from company should already be visible from the start of the QA/QC process during Pre-Inspection Meetings and Kick-Off meetings with contractors and coating contractors.
The approach shall be a more pragmatic approach with hands-on from the company inspectors.
 

Deployment of new coating techniques in new build projects and maintenance
When new coating systems and/or application techniques are available, opportunities should be found to deploy these new developments with support of company engineering and operations.