Monthly Archives: November 2011

What’s That Smell?

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We’ve all smelled it, that fresh coat of paint! For you it might mean a job well done, but for the person living or working there, it’s just the beginning of that “fresh coat” headache. So what’s the cause of all those wonderful smells? VOCs – Volatile Organic Compounds.

Manufacturers use VOCs to keep chemicals separate in the paint. The VOCs must evaporate for the paint to dry correctly and the odor we smell is that evaporation process. The benefits of using paints with no or low VOCs are that there is no risk of fire and there are no odors or paint headaches.

Many paint companies are beginning to offer low VOC paint products. Some are even offering paints or coatings with no VOCs, although it’s still not an easy task to find high performance corrosion resistant coatings with no VOCs (EonCoat industrial coating has no VOCs). Put that mask away and start painting!

We want to hear what you think. Have you ever had someone complain of the fumes when you had just finished a coat? Have you ever gotten headaches from paint fumes? Sound off in the comments.

EonCoat Coating Offers Safety in Confined Spaces

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Nearly all coatings have two very serious health hazards for use in confined spaces, toxic fumes and flash point.

Flash Point in confined spaces becomes a non-issue as EonCoat is completely non-flammable and cannot ignite

Flash point is the temperature at which the vapor from a volatile material can ignite in air. In practice this means that in a confined space, when spraying a coating with a flash point lower than the temperature in the space, the vapors can ignite and explode if someone strikes an arc. It is astonishing how many protective coatings have a flash point lower than the typical temperatures seen in a tank. Contractors go to great lengths to recirculate air to keep the concentrations of vapor low. They ban smoking and equipment that might cause a spark, but the work is inherently dangerous. EonCoat vapors cannot be ignited no matter what the temperature is and no matter what spark occurs (even a direct flame) because the coating is completely non-flammable.

Zero Toxicity means no more headaches and no danger of succumbing to fumes

The other issue is toxicity. All of us who have worked within confined spaces for a time, have known at least one person who had to be pulled from a tank or other confined space because of toxic vapor inhalation. We do everything we can to prevent it. We blow fresh air through the tank. We sniff the tank before we enter. We stand a watch outside the tank every second someone is in a confined space. We talk about it at safety meetings. We make people wear a full respirator. Yet it happens – people are overcome by fumes. EonCoat is a huge step in the right direction. It has zero toxicity. While it is always appropriate to have fresh air flowing anytime someone is working in a confined space, with EonCoat you don’t have to worry that someone you are responsible for is in danger from toxic fumes.

A contractor working with EonCoat put all this in perspective for me last week when he said “I don’t go home with a headache anymore.”

For more information about confined space safety visit http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/shipyard/shiprepair/painting/index_paint.html

 

Why EonCoat Makes Sense as a Corrosion Resistant Coating Primer

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For many years there have been three primary methods of corrosion protection. Cathodic protection, sacrificial anode and barrier coat. Now EonCoat offers a fourth method by enabling a passive/alloyed layer chemically bonded to steel that is stable (stable means a metal like gold or platinum that doesn’t generally react with other chemicals).

We’ve had a number of customers ask “Can we topcoat it?” The answer is yes. EonCoat has an inert porous surface with a pH of about 10 so almost all paints bond to it easily without further prep.

We’ve had samples in the sea water spray chamber for nearly a year that have a basecoat of EonCoat and are covered with various topcoats.

As sometimes happens, the most interesting results are unplanned. About 9 months ago one of our lab technicians and application specialist, Mark, put just a brush pass of EonCoat (maybe 2 to 3 mils) on a 3×3 plate with zero prep and sprayed it with a Krylon topcoat out of a can. He then tossed the plate into the sea water chamber curious to see what would happen. After 9 months this sample still looks like new except for a couple of spots of organic growth on the surface, which can easily be wiped off by hand. Now if EonCoat can make a $3 can of Krylon last like a world class protective coating, just think what it could do for a quality barrier coating.

There are more reasons to consider using EonCoat as a primer.

For a long time the most effective corrosion products have employed a system using multiple coating products that work together and complement each other. For example, it is common to use a sacrificial anode primer covered by a barrier coating. The idea is to use the barrier coating to keep corrosion promoters out but if they get past the barrier the sacrificial primer is consumed before the steel starts to rust. This same strategy could be applied to a combination of a topcoat over EonCoat. EonCoat creates a stable layer that does not react. While this layer should be permanent it is likely that at least a few molecules or ions of any substance will eventually dissolve in water. Adding a topcoat that reduces the amount of water that reaches the EonCoat passive layer would logically further reduce the possibility of ever seeing corrosion.

Additionally, a well-designed topcoat system can also improve performance because EonCoat is a ductile ceramic, but still a ceramic, and with that comes some inherent brittleness. A polymer is exactly the right material to cushion blows and improve the impact resistance of EonCoat in areas where impact is prevalent, like rocks hitting an over the road trailer.