More than spit and polish
Keeping the shine on machinery can be an uphill struggle - but there are preparations to help.
What about painting machinery? Quayside cranes, passenger walkways, link spans etc are all important and expensive to take out of service. ABP's approach is to specify a high quality coating from new and, ideally, carry out maintenance repainting "before corrosion sets in and the steel would have to be stripped back to bare metal," says Dave Herrod of ABP.
The other problem than needs consideration are the areas where heavy machinery gives port surfaces a beating, as Mike Taylor of PPG, who own the Sigma Coatings brand explains. "Plus you can sometimes find the materials that are brought through the port are chemically reactive, so broadly resistant coatings, like phenolic epoxies, are very useful."
Valuable in aggressive environments are formulations that suspend bodies like glass flake in a resin base. This has been used for some time where very effective protection of external steelwork is needed over a small area.
It seems that the only problem with using epoxy paints on machinery is that sunlight makes it chalk. Although still effective as a protective coat, the top couple of microns lose gloss and colour inside a few months, so a polyurethane or equivalent topcoat is nice, to keep that "new toy shine", says Mr Taylor.
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