Abstract
Standard practices for monitoring the cure of coatings for high performance applications have been well accepted by the industry. Employing a dry to handle or hardness based test creates a simple and effective means to qualitatively check the degree of cure before applying additional material or returning to service. These techniques allow for a fast characterization of relative hardness or resistance to deformation of the coating. However, during cold months this cannot be used as a qualitative estimate of the degree of through-cure, as the applied product has the tendency to freeze and may exhibit artificially high hardness values and/or a premature passing dry to handle result. Additional test methods are needed for in-situ evaluations of tank linings cured at cold temperatures to accurately assess the degree of cure and potential return to service. A side by side laboratory testing program was developed to investigate the degree of cure for 100% solids tank lining products using standard analytical techniques, laboratory immersion testing for a range of common commodities, and in-situ field evaluations. Correlation between laboratory testing and potential field evaluations was a key focus of this study.
