2022 Prestige Awards Winner: Steel Coatings
The annual JPCL Prestige Awards program recognizes influential individuals, impactful products on the market and noteworthy projects completed during the past year in the protective and marine coatings industry.
Differing from past editions, the 2022 Top Project Awards highlight specific products involved in notable coating projects across an array of industry sectors, including bridge and highway, water and wastewater, marine, energy production and more.
Additionally, each Top Project category includes Project MVP awards, which recognize the team leaders who helped carry these projects through to successful completion.
“We wanted to enhance this year’s Prestige Awards by assessing the performance of top products and the influence of outstanding individuals on real-world, high-stakes painting projects,” said Charlie Lange, Editor-in-Chief, JPCL.
“By recognizing the team leaders and the materials and equipment used to complete these projects, we’re offering a 360-degree view of the jobs from start to finish, and truly focusing on the critical components that led to the project’s completion.”
Over the coming weeks, PaintSquare Daily News will be highlighting the winners of this year’s projects. A full list of winners can be found in the January edition of the Journal of Protective Coatings & Linings.
Nominations for the 2023 Prestige Awards are anticipated to open July 1 online. The awards committee is currently considering changes to the 2023 awards program, including updated categories, an enhanced online nominations form and a new judging panel.
More information will be released in the coming months. Watch for additional details and deadline reminders in upcoming issues of JPCL and PaintSquare Daily News.
The Steel Coatings award was given for a coatings project on a steel structure. The project can involve the application of new coatings technologies, and/or involve application on a particularly complicated or challenging structure. Nominees need to highlight the coatings systems used and how project challenges were overcome.
Steel Coatings Winner
Smooth as a whistle—that’s how coating applications went for 256 miles worth of spiral-weld pipe used to construct a large portion of the expansive Whistler Pipeline, a project spanning more than half the width of Texas. Approximately 18,265 pipes had to travel through Stupp Coatings’ application shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to make up that portion of the 450-mile pipeline. The timing was tight, with those pipes needing to be fully prepared, coated and shipped to the installation site over the course of about 48 weeks to ensure installers could complete each pipeline construction stage timely.
Going into the project, pipeline co-owner WhiteWater Midstream LLC, knew efficiencies would be critical. That meant Stupp Coatings would need to maintain a cadence of coating and delivering about 420 pipes per week, which would only be possible by specifying fast-curing coatings that were easy to apply, had minimal touchup needs and enabled rapid handling. The coatings would also need to have excellent resistance to damage during pipe installations, as WhiteWater was hoping to eliminate the time-consuming and costly step of wrapping pipes in a polymeric protective wrap to protect applied coatings from damage during trench backfilling operations. Without a protective external wrap, the coatings would need to be able to withstand the force of rocks and debris raining down on the pipes during backfilling.
A strong coating contender came into view in the form of Pipeclad 2060 Moisture Resistant Overcoat (MRO) from Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, which is also an abrasion-resistant overcoat (ARO). This dual-layer powder system offered Stupp Coatings the ability to apply both the base anti-corrosion, fusion-bonded epoxy (FBE) layer—Pipeclad 2000—and the damage-resistant Pipeclad 2060 MRO layer in tandem. This double-layer application, while the pipe was already on the coating line, added minimal time to the project, providing robust pipeline damage protection in essentially the same amount of time required to protect the pipes from corrosion.
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Approximately 18,265 pipes had to travel through Stupp Coatings’ application shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to make up that portion of the 450-mile pipeline. |
The damage protection afforded by Pipeclad 2060 MRO would be required throughout pipe storage and transit, as well as especially at the application site where WhiteWater was hopeful the coating would have the required durability to enable backfilling in particularly rocky terrain. To prove the coating was up to the task, Sherwin-Williams subjected Pipeclad 2060 MRO to extensive in-house testing, including impact and cold flexibility tests. Based on the positive results, WhiteWater determined it would be able to forgo the traditional time-consuming application of polymeric protective wraps during pipeline installations in favor of relying on the dual-layer coating system. This adjustment ultimately helped WhiteWater significantly reduce project costs and realize a much more efficient pipeline installation.
With Stupp Coatings able to spray the MRO product at essentially the same time as the FBE layer, the applicator realized highly efficient pipe coating applications. Efficiencies continued from there with the company observing a dramatic reduction in post-application holidays, particularly around weld seams on the spiral welded pipe, compared to results from previously used coating systems. That meant fewer coating touchups and faster pipe completions and deliveries for Stupp Coatings.
Even better for WhiteWater, after pipes were welded and installed in the field, direct current voltage gradient inspections demonstrated that Pipeclad 2060 MRO performed at the same level as pipes using polymeric protective wraps, providing the necessary protection from corrosion and damage to enable safe pipeline operation.
For Stupp Coatings and WhiteWater, the key to keeping timing on track was a combination of efficiencies in-shop and onsite. Taking the inventive, dual-layer tandem approach to applying coatings accelerated throughput for the applicator, while also reducing holidays and damage.
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The damage protection afforded by Pipeclad 2060 MRO would be required throughout pipe storage and transit, as well as especially at the application site where WhiteWater was hopeful the coating would have the required durability to enable backfilling in particularly rocky terrain. |
The owner realized significant reductions in backfilling and installation costs –without compromising the pipeline integrity. Along the way, the durable, yet flexible, coatings used made these efficiencies and savings possible, and they’ll continue to protect the pipeline from corrosion and wear, while it provides energy for tens of millions of people, now and for years to come.
Project MVPs
Jim Lacey, Strategic Accounts Manager – Functional Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, expertly led the commercial relationship between the three main entities on the project that helped lay the foundation for both its genesis, progress and ultimately successful completion.
Kandyce Kohlmaier, Project Development Manager, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, served a key role on the project, primarily through managing relationships with the installation crew. She made sure technical aspects of the coatings were understood and that they were performing properly, as to promote the progression of the pipeline to its timely completion.
Dr. Jeffrey David Rogozinski, Global Product Director – Fusion-Bonded Epoxy/Pipe, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, was an indispensable member of the team, with his industry-recognized knowledge and know-how in powder coatings applications, as well as his determination to find solutions that matched the particular demands of the project.
Brandon Blair, Sales Manager – Functional Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, used his strategic management of vital aspects of this prominent project in his region helped demonstrate the possibilities of using a combination of abrasion-resistant overcoat external powder coatings. The project, and Blair’s contributions, have deservingly drawn positive notice among pipe coating applicators, utilities and midstream oil and gas operators.
Rick Jones, Vice President of Stupp Coatings, was instrumental in proving the effectiveness of an innovative dual coating system that allowed for major efficiencies to be achieved throughout the ambitious project. He also created the infrastructure that allowed his company to take on the job.
EDITOR’S NOTE: While some nominees ran unopposed in 2022, all were deemed worthy of their respective honors by JPCL editors. It is the Journal’s policy to present an award only if the entry meets our established standards. Thank you to those who submitted an exceptional group of nominees.
