Good engineering practice demands that constants and variables be recognized and segregated. Once this is done, the constants may be dismissed and attention focused on the variables.
If paint is a part of any corrosion prevention program, then the quality of that paint becomes a constant only by specification. Or, more exactly, paint quality approaches a constant depending on the effectiveness of the specification and its enforcement.
Instances are known where large industrial companies have tried to assay the effectiveness of their maintenance painting program, only to find that they were using so many different proprietary paints for the same purpose that a reasonable analysis of the situation was impossible. This may be of no importance if the company is not interested in obtaining full return for every dollar spent. However, most companies are extremely interested in dollars—especially those which are being spent.
Material purchase specifications have been discussed by...
