10 common mistakes when doing corrosion maintenance
Corrosion onboard steel vessels is an in-evitable occurrence that we will have to deal with best possible. This corrosion may appear from multiple reasons but the solution is almost always the same.
Produce A Clean Surface with a Rough profile and Sufficient paint
To achive this we will need to know what good surface preparation is, and what mistakes we should avoid.
Mistakes we do:
General cleaning
1. Salt is not washed away.
2. Oil is not removed sufficiently by detergent.
3. Dirt is not removed.
Cleaning should be done prior starting the surface preparation and before each coating. If in doubt clean.
Surface preparation
4. The corrosion is not properly removed
5. The surface is not rough
6. The remaining paint have not been feathered and roughened
These mistakes are usually caused by not knowing the surface quality needed and using in-efficient tools that can’t do the job.
Painting
7. The Humidity too high (or low) when painting.
8. Insufficient thickness of primer is applied. (click to read more)
9. Poor mixing of the paint. (click to read more)
10. Too short or too long interval between coatings.
How the mistakes affect us
About 85% of corrosion is by insufficient surface preparation.
Lowering this will lead to a huge saving in cost, man powers and repairs
The remaining 15 % is mainly caused by mechanical impact, stress, heat, cold, chemicals or other external factors.
We can try to minimize this, but on a working vessel spanners will be dropped and fire hoses will be dragged over the deck.
Having a structured corrosion strategy will help the crew to avoid these mistakes and to do efficient maintenance every time.
