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Month: December 2022

PRESS RELEASE: How to Fix Underbody Corrosion Before It Starts

There is often more to vehicle rust than meets the eye. While vehicle owners in harsh winter climates may bemoan the rust eating away at their vehicle bodies, the more serious issue is what is happening to the vehicle underbody. Although underbody rust may not get a second thought on a new vehicle, it will get plenty of attention after it starts deteriorating the critical components of an aging one. To counter this attack on vehicle integrity, Cortec® Corporation offers two underbody coatings to help cars, trucks, and buses last longer.

Underbody Rust Issues
The biggest culprit of underbody rust is deicing salts, applied freely in wintry climates to keep roads safe in snowy, icy conditions. While the lives of commuters may be safer, the service life of vehicles driving on messy roads can be significantly shorter from the chloride-laden road spray splashing up onto vehicle underbodies. Regular washing with a cleaner like VpCI®-406 is one of the best ways to extend vehicle service life. But it is more difficult when it comes to cleaning the undercarriage, among the most exposed and vulnerable areas of the vehicle. Ultimately, underbody corrosion can hasten the need for repairs, reduce vehicle service life, and-worse-cause safety threats if critical parts rust through without being fixed. The problem is worse for plows and salt spreaders that get the brunt of the winter road treatments.

Is Underbody Coating Worth It?
Considering these rust problems, an underbody coating can be extremely valuable. The question is not one of choosing undercoating vs. corrosion protection but of choosing undercoating and corrosion protection. Cortec® offers two anticorrosion coating options for vehicle owners and fleet maintenance personnel to consider.

CorrBarrier™ Primer is a fast-drying high solids waterborne latex with extremely low water vapor permeability. This one-coat system provides protection in harsh outdoor applications. It dries to a pencil hardness of F but remains flexible with good chip resistance. This is important for underbody surfaces constantly being battered by gravel, rock chips, or other debris flying up from the road. CorrBarrier™ can be applied directly to the metal vehicle undercarriage by spray or brush. It offers the familiar water-based coating advantages of easier cleanup and low VOCs (0.2 lbs/gal [24 g/L]) while still getting good underbody corrosion protection.

VpCI®-398 Undercoat is a solvent-based coating for even heavier duty corrosion protection. This fast drying, sulphonate one-coat system can also be applied direct-to-metal by spray or brush. It is available in one color, black, and has excellent UV resistance. Rather than leave a hard coating susceptible to chips, VpCI®-398 remains soft, pliable, and very forgiving to physical abrasion so that nicks do not crack and break open the coating.

Who Needs Underbody Coatings?
There are many places an anticorrosion undercoating can be beneficial. Harsh winter climates are the most obvious, but tropical coastal climates with high temperatures and salt-spray can also necessitate corrosion protection. Corrosive work environments (e.g., heavy equipment loading salts or fertilizers) are another good reason for undercarriage protection. Coating the underbody of a personal vehicle is a great way to make a personal investment last longer, but it makes even more sense when entire fleets or high value assets are at stake. Service trucks are one example. Buses are another. For DOT plows and salt spreaders that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take the brunt of winter roads and deicing salts, the price of periodic underbody coating as part of routine maintenance is negligible compared with the cost of repair and replacement. Even train cars and their chassis may benefit from an underbody coating to help them last longer as they ride the rails in unrelenting weather.

Get Your Underbody Coated
Many ask if underbody coating is worth it. The answer is a resounding “Yes!” As with many preventative maintenance measures, it can be difficult to swallow the time, hassle, and cost of a task for which there is no urgent need. But the benefits can be huge in the long run, increasing with the value of the asset. If you think your fleet or personal vehicle may need long-term corrosion protection underneath, contact Cortec® to learn more about vehicle underbody coatings and weigh the costs/benefits for you and your team: https://www.corteccoatings.com/contact-us-2/

Keywords: how to fix underbody corrosion, vehicle rust, underbody rust, is underbody coating worth it, undercoating vs corrosion protection, Cortec, deicing salts, preventative maintenance, fleet maintenance, corrosion protection

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PRESS RELEASE: Anticorrosion Coatings for Metal: One Size Does Not Fit All

The metal coatings industry is dominated by large corporations that provide a wide selection of outstanding paints but may be too rigid to cater to special application needs. Every coating application has specific parameters, but often, if the coating does not work properly straight out of the drum, the end user is out of luck. The story is different at Cortec®, where a flexible customer service mindset helps users adapt the right coating to individualized needs.

Finding the Right Cortec® Coating
When a customer comes to Cortec® looking for a new corrosion inhibiting paint, Cortec® will first help them narrow down the best option available from Cortec’s existing portfolio. Some of the parameters Cortec® examines alongside customers are as follows:
• Coating carrier (water-based vs. solvent-based)
• VOCs
• Coating thickness
• Outdoor vs. indoor use
• Salt spray performance
Based on the information provided, Cortec’s representatives and technical staff can then recommend one or two coatings that seem best suited to the job. Sometimes, no modification is needed at all. Other times, a trial run may reveal that slight customization is due.

Coatings Customization—When One Size Does Not Fit All
Reasons for coating customization fall into two categories: performance and application needs. The former includes factors such as adhesion and salt spray requirements, which may be higher or lower than the specific coating in the lineup. Cortec® can work with customers to adjust these parameters in special situations. On the other side of the coin, the customer’s application process can be a huge gamechanger—not because of something wrong with the coating but because different application methods affect the same coating differently. For example, the use of an airless sprayer versus the dip coating process means viscosity may need to be adjusted to make the coating flow more smoothly through the sprayer. Some application methods create extra foaming and therefore require foam control. In other situations, the manufacturer may need a longer or a shorter drying time. There are countless other considerations, as well, that may require small or large adjustments to the base coating. Cortec® works to stay flexible and adapt to the customers’ needs, which sometimes leads to new discoveries that can benefit others in the process.

Example 1: Speeding up Dry Time
This was the case with a manufacturer who needed an anticorrosion coating to protect the outer diameter (OD) of steel pipes from corrosion until commissioning by the end user. Manufacturer requirements were very rigorous, demanding protection at 1 mil DFT (dry film thickness) and compliance to stringent VOC standards. In addition, the coating needed good hot hardness so the pipes would not stick together after force-drying. This also improved the automatic stenciling process. The quest to meet all these parameters led to the development of a new coating in the Cortec® portfolio: EcoShield® 386 FD. This specialty formula showed excellent protection during a one-year trial on pipes sitting outside and even allowed the customer to reduce costs by using less paint. It also led to the discovery of a new coating with ideal characteristics for manufacturers handling hot parts on a fast-paced paint line.

Example 2: Slowing Down Dry Time
In another case, Cortec® was called in to help a manufacturer of large HVAC systems find a coating solution that offered better protection than the previous paint that did not prevent rust from forming on the units. Cortec® visited the manufacturer multiple times and discussed salt spray, adhesion, and a variety of other coating specifications with the client’s engineers and painters. Ultimately, they settled on VpCI®-375 and VpCI®-386 as the protective primer/topcoat system, with special adjustments made to meet the customer’s paint specifications. Cortec® did custom color matching and also adjusted the formula to slow down paint dry time so the customer could apply the coating wet-on-wet as desired. Ultimately, Cortec’s dedicated engagement in the process paid off in the form of a coating system that solved the corrosion problem while also reducing the number of primer coats and overall coatings thickness.

In the Business of Finding Corrosion Solutions
Cortec® is in the business of finding corrosion solutions that work for the customer. When it comes to coatings, sometimes that means making modifications to help the coating work in a specific application environment. While other companies may not be able to adapt to the customer’s specific needs, Cortec® provides flexible support by focusing on finding a solution that works. Contact Cortec® to get started in the process of finding an anticorrosion coating suited to your needs: https://www.corteccoatings.com/contact-us-2/

Keywords: coating viscosity, dip coating process, coating specifications, paint dry time, corrosion inhibiting paint, coatings for metal, Cortec, anticorrosion coating, force dry coating, coatings thickness

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NEWS ALERT: Match Your Existing Color Scheme with Cortec® Anticorrosion Coatings!

Do you want a protective metal coating that matches the color of your existing paint? Cortec® makes this possible with custom color matching for almost any Cortec® Micro-Corrosion Inhibiting Coating!

Why Color Match Paint?

There are many reasons end users might want their anticorrosion coating to match a specific color. Manufacturers that send painted metal parts around the world need to account for the corrosive environments these goods will encounter in shipping, storage, or final installation. At the same time, they may be required to use a specific brand-identifying color. Similarly, plant maintenance personnel may need to match a facility’s existing color scheme or safety colors when they paint metal stairways, railings, and support beams. Cortec® can help by tinting almost any Cortec® Coating of choice to the right color.

How Can I Match an Existing Paint Color?

There are several ways to get the desired Cortec® Coating color. (1) The easiest way is to give Cortec® the RAL or federal number of the color that needs to be matched. RAL numbers are the same around the world. That means someone in Indonesia or the UK could request RAL 7046 and Cortec® could, for example, make EcoShield® VpCI®-386 in the exact same gray color at Cortec® headquarters. (2) Another option is to send a sample of existing paint, which Cortec® can apply to a laboratory test panel and read with its X-Rite system. (3) If no RAL number or paint sample exists, customers can send a sample of anything flat that matches their desired color and is able to fit under the handheld X-Rite color reader. In his decades of coatings experience, Rick Shannon (Technical Service Manager) has had customers send him everything from curtains to carpets to pieces of blinds for color matching.

Once Cortec® gets the RAL number or reads the color on the X-Rite, they identify which tints are needed, run a sample batch of paint, and double check the color to make sure it is correct. They continue to adjust tints as needed until the color is right and they are ready to run the full production batch.

Ready, Set, Color Match!

Whether you have a mezzanine system that needs a protective coating in a specific safety color, or you have a piece of heavy equipment that needs a new coating to match the paint peeling off in the rental yard, Cortec® is here to help you select a Cortec® Coating that makes the most sense for your application and then match it to your industrial color palette. Contact us to get started: https://www.corteccoatings.com/contact-us-2/

Keywords: Cortec, anticorrosion coating, protective coating, color matching, color match paint, how can I match an existing paint color, VpCI, X-Rite system, industrial color palette, corrosion inhibiting coating

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CASE HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: Case History #783: Better Corrosion Protection with Less Paint

A tube steel manufacturer needed a water-based corrosion inhibitor coating for the OD (outer diameter) of oil and gas industry pipes. In addition to protecting pipe externals until commissioning, the coating needed to be applied at 1 mil (25 µm) DFT, meet zero VOC requirements, and force-dry in an oven at 140 °F (60 °C) before stenciling.

A trial was done using Cortec® EcoShield 386 FD on several thousand pipes left to sit outside for one year near the Gulf of Mexico. The pipes were hydrotested before the coating was applied and then force dried for 22 minutes. At the end of a year in outdoor storage, the coating showed excellent 5B adhesion, and there was no rust on pipe ODs. Three other trials did similarly well.

The client was very satisfied with the product performance and planned to use it at other facilities. In contrast to the competitor product, EcoShield® 386 FD helped the manufacturer achieve longer protection and meet local VOC requirements at only 0.04 lbs/gal (5 g/L) VOC. It also allowed the manufacturer to save money by using less paint.

Read the full case history here.

Keywords: tube steel manufacturer, corrosion protection, water based coating, oil and gas industry pipes, zero VOC, use less paint, EcoShield, Cortec, corrosion inhibitor coating

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