The contracting process for an anti-corrosion project is one of the important tasks of a large industrial company to keep its infrastructures free of the factors that lead to the weakening of the parts due to corrosion.
by Mariangie Navarro
INPRA LATINA has talked about methodologies, application, maintenance techniques, among other topics that have to do with corrosion protection. But this time we will deal with the issue of the costs that a company or end user has when it needs to perform anticorrosive maintenance.
Revealing exact values in the analysis of the costs of a project of this type is quite pretentious, since there are variables that can make a difference when it comes to prices (materials, market news, local economy). Therefore, the objective of this article, rather than analyzing costs, is to understand what kind of actions must be followed to execute a good antocorrosive project in your company or home.
Jordi Calvo, member of the Board of Directors of AETEPA (Spanish Association of Paint and Allied Technicians), who is an expert in the subject of architectural paints and coatings, said the following about the above: "Maintenance in the architectural sector is a complicated issue since it depends on various variables: first of all there are different construction materials such as iron, cement, bricks, plasters, etc. that coexist in the same building. Secondly, the preparation of these materials in the construction period, and thirdly, the geographical location of the architectural object."
The guest added that "if during the construction of a building, from its inception, an appropriate methodology is followed, such as in the preparation of metal profiles, joints and the choice of paint finishes that adapt to the area where they are going to be applied, the conservation expenses should not be high and the periodicity of maintenance can be as long as the duration of the aesthetic effect".
We also had the participation of Juan Guillermo Maya, maintenance management analyst at ISA, in Colombia, who within the electricity sector and more specifically on energy conveyors, stressed that preventive maintenance must be carried out to avoid corrective ones.
"This depends on the level of corrosive aggressiveness of the area in which its assets are installed and the degree of affectation of the components; it is clearly more economical to carry out preventive interventions than corrective ones. For example, the anti-corrosion paint of the structure of 100 power transmission towers may be on the order of US$2,000,000; to this should be added other expenses such as the change of insulators, change of hardware, change of conductive cables, change of information plates, etc, "said the official.
Luis Granes, sauereisen's international sales manager and member of the Association of Corrosion Engineers (Nace), considers it vitally important to carry out an evaluation of the surface preparation process, the handling of materials and their correct application and curing. In this case we are talking about the maritime sector.
"Fixed expenses such as the costs of the Dry dock, where major maintenance would be carried out such as labor, but above all, the downtime of the structure or equipment, during the maintenance process. Here comes to play an important role the correct selection of anticorrosive materials to be used. The selection of 100% solid products (Green-Green), present the benefit to the owner of the equipment, since the downtime will be shorter than when selecting anticorrosive products that have high solvent contents, because to reach the recommended thicknesses, 100% solid products do it in one hand, while the others could require up to two and three hands, increasing the time of the structure out of service. On the other hand, 100% solid products cure quickly, therefore, they have an impact on shorter downtime for the equipment," said Luis.
Maintenance times
According to each of the three sectors we are analyzing, the periodicity of maintenance depends on different aspects. However, to avoid this, it is key to conduct constant inspections.
"Depending on the material we are talking about and the coating that is applied to them, the frequency of maintenance will vary. However, with periodic preventive inspections, we can ensure a much longer service life, since in this way, we will detect and even predict the durability of the coating and the structure, and thus plan a "major maintenance" stop less frequently, "explained Luis Granes.
Jordi Calvo has a similar concept: "Maintenance operations can have a variable periodicity depending on the approach and the work process used in the construction of the new building. A well-designed and constructed building should have no other maintenance than the aesthetic one whose periodicity can be calculated between 10 and 20 years, in buildings in which the construction process has been carried out without following the minimum standards of preparation of materials, problems can arise within a few months and be repeated in different areas in very short periods of time. "
In this regard, Juan Guillermo Maya is more specific about the materials used by energy conveyors: "Again it must be said that this depends on the type of tower component and the corrosive aggressiveness of the area in which the line is installed; for example, in areas of high corrosive aggressiveness it is prudent to project the paint of the structures of the towers at least 2 times in their useful life".
Cost analysis
Currently, is the cost of preventive maintenance high in each of the sectors we analyzed? For Juan Guillermo Maya, the multiple options available in the market have allowed prices to be reduced. "I think the price is not high. In the market there are all kinds of possibilities, there are companies that offer you very qualified personnel and procedures and others not so much, everything depends on the level of quality that is required. "
For his part, Luis Granes, assures that it is still expensive to hire a maintenance service in the maritime area: "Of course it is. Maintenance in general increases every year, due to the costs that continuously increase, and no one has the interest to absorb these costs; therefore, the values pass from the manufacturers of the materials to the applicators and these in turn pass them on to their users and they, therefore, are obliged to register them to their customers, who in reality, at the end of this chain of costs, are the ones who end up paying the general increases".
The green
On the green trend that the industry is currently going through, the guests assure that it is a process that is slowly gaining ground and that day by day more alternatives for the corrosion industry are known that come with this technology.
"Many companies have been making coatings that are considered green, since before the green Boom started. 100% solid products could be classified as the pioneers in the area of ecofriendlies. Every day that passes, more and more products classified as 'Green' enter to compete in this market. But in order for them to dominate the market, the support of state environmental institutions is needed, so that they generate more regulations, where the use of these materials is required. Without this support, organic products will be little received," explained Luis Granes.
For his part, Jordi considers that "they must be differentiated between water-based paints, what we know as plastic paints, which have had a fairly important progress because for the user it does not represent a change of mentality; however, in the solvent paint sector the progress is slow and the reason is not in the costs but in the mentality of the same who is convinced that the substitute paints do not offer the same guarantees as those currently used".
Finally, Juan Guillermo believes that for the industry it is important to start using these alternatives: "I consider it a duty to support technologies that seek to improve the environmental conditions of our planet."
Leave your comment