Protective coatings have been used for more than a century to protect steel bridges from corrosion. Oil-based coatings with lead and chromium pigments applied directly over mill scale were the industry standard for almost 100 years, and provided excellent protection against corrosion at a reasonable price. In the mid-1960s, use of lead-based paints declined and zinc became the inhibitive pigment of choice1 . Zinc-based pigments galvanically couple to steel, causing the zinc pigments to sacrifice themselves as they are anodic to the steel. For more than 40 years, zinc-rich primers in three-coat systems have been considered state-of-the-art technologies for preventing corrosion of steel bridge structures. Typically the zinc-rich primer is topcoated with two additional coats to improve aesthetics and barrier properties along with chemical, corrosion, and abrasion resistance.2
Two-Coat Polyaspartic Urethane Coatings Protect Virginia Steel Bridges for over a Decade Available to Purchase
Ahren Olson
Covestro LLC
Ahren is the Marketing Manager for Corrosion Protection with Covestro LLC in Pittsburgh, PA. He has been with Bayer for 12 years, holding both technical and marketing positions in the areas of automotive, construction, and protective coatings.
Ahren holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in chemistry from The College of Wooster and is a NACE certified Coatings Inspector. He serves as a member on both the SSPC Standards Review Committee and the Board of Governors. In his current role, Ahren provides market development in Covestro's efforts to understand and prevent corrosion in the industrial maintenance market.
Todd Williams, Ph.D.
Bayer MaterialScience
Todd graduated with a Ph.D. from The University of Southern Mississippi in 2005 where he wrote his thesis on latexes crosslinked using vegetable oil macromoners. After a two year post-doctoral position studying polyurethane coatings, in 2007 he began working for Segetis, a startup company in Minneapolis focusing on renewable polymers. In 2009, he joined Bayer MaterialScience developing UV-curable coating formulations, and in 2012 he became manager of the Corrosion Protection group.
Mark A. Hudson
The Sherwin-Williams Company
Mark has been employed, in numerous capacities, with The Sherwin-Williams Co. over the last 41 years. He has worked in operations management sales management, and direct sales in the Protective & Marine markets, OEM market, and the Commercial Contractor market.
Mark assumed the Business Development Manager position in January 2011 and was a Corrosion Specification Specialist from 2005-2011.
Mark has presented at various conferences including SSPC, NACE, NAI Coatings Show and Polyurea Development Association. He is a member of SSPC, NACE, and the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania. He holds certifications for SSPC Concrete Coatings Inspector and NACE Certified Coatings Inspector, Level 3.
