One of the main challenges of corrosion under insulation (CUI) is that the corrosion is invisible to the naked eye due to the insulation covering the steel. Inspecting all assets and structures is almost impossible, so the owner must trust a protective coating to mitigate CUI. CUI has resulted in failure, fires, and explosions. Less than 3 years ago, we had a serious accident with an explosion that was caused by corrosion under insulation in Brazil. The cause behind severe CUI is often complex due to several failures. One way to mitigate CUI is to qualify protective coatings suitable for CUI conditions.

The high occurrence of CUI in the industry has led paint companies to develop products and tests to be sure that a coating system would work under insulation. Industry owners have also tested to be sure a coating system would perform in CUI conditions. There was a lack of a commonly recognized test standard to qualify protective coatings for CUI conditions until 2018 when ISO 19277 was published.

The purpose of this paper is to inform the market about the latest changes in test methods to evaluate coatings for CUI. ISO 19277 is already in use, and together with recent updates to NORSOK M-501 and a newly published test method, AMPP TM21442, it is now a set of documents available to help qualify a protective coating for CUI conditions.

Subject
Test methods, Coating performance, Protective coatings, Water, Coatings, Insulation, Industries, Mechanical failure, Heat, Corrosion under insulation, Corrosion protection, Paints, Coating systems
Keywords:
Corrosion, protective coating, corrosion under insulation (CUI), (CSI), insulation
© 2023 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) and ABRACO. All rights reserved. This work is protected by both domestic and international copyright laws. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP or ABRACO. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2023
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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