Selected Answers

From Duane Cooper of BAE Systems Ship Repair on May 12, 2016:
Surface prep and dew point are the most important ...read more Surface prep and dew point are the most important steps in preservation.

From Warren Brand of Chicago Corrosion Group on May 12, 2016:
The most important factor is to determine if one i ...read more The most important factor is to determine if one is required. Unless a failure analysis is going to be used for litigation purposes or to develop repair protocols, there's no point in doing one. I wrote a blog in November of 2015 on this topic, (http://www.paintsquare.com/blog/?fuseaction=view&blogID=246). Just a few months ago, we were contacted by a large refinery wanting a failure analysis of a severely distressed coating system. After discussions, we recommended forgoing the failure analysis and, instead, developing a repair protocol, as the cause of the failure was irrelevant. From a technical perspective, if one determines a failure analysis is required, look for the most obvious cause first which, in most cases, is a problem with some issue with application. That is, look for the usual suspects: intercoat disbondment, solvent entrapment, poor surface prep, exceeding re-coat windows, environmental conditionsduring application, etc.