Area Section

ECP Training Notes - Key Learnings ECP

Corrosion

Corrosion is the deterioration of a material, usually a metal, because of a reaction with its environment.

Electrons travel from anode to cathode through electrolyte and then returns to the anode through
metal itself to complete the corrosion cell.

The corrosion cell must have following four elements in order to initiate its reaction i.e.

Anode
Cathode
Metallic pathway (or external conductor)
Electrolyte

There is various type of corrosion which includes Pitting, uniform and crevice corrosion etc.

Following are the classification of environment on the base of temperature, humidity, salt content and
many other factors that accelerate corrosion.

C1 - Very Low Corrosive environment

C2 Low Corrosive environment
C3 Moderate Corrosive environment
C4 High Corrosive environment
C5-I - Very High (Industrial) Corrosive environment
C5-M - Very High (Marine) Corrosive environment

Open to air structures like RFO Tank are classified as C5-M as well as C5-I due to both adverse marine
weather and corrosive exhaust gases specially on RFO Tank# 4. The environment inside building is
classified as C4.

Corrosion Prevention

Corrosion can be prevented through

Design of equipment
Material Selection
Use of Inhibitors
Coatings
Cathodic protection
Splash zone system
Alteration of environment

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Coatings

Coatings is the mostly used by ECP department for the safety and life of plant equipment against one of
the most corrosive environment of the world. Coating separates the metal surface contact with
electrolyte to inhibit corrosion.

HUBCO site is consider to be one of the most corrosive environment of the world and it is classified as C-
5M class, which is among the most corrosive environment having high levels of humidity and salt.

Coating and paint selection for a particular equipment is based on its surface material and the
environment it faces which includes temperature, oxygen level, chemical salt, humidity and any
pollutants. Higher the above parameters, greater would be the corrosion and shorter would be the life
of equipment.

Following are the general steps for coating on the equipment.

Washing through demineralized water

Surface preparation to produce good profile
Application of coating
Inspection before and after every step

Demineralized water is used because it has minimum quantity of salt.

Surface is prepared before the coating so that the paint can hold surface. Following are the techniques
used for surface preparation

Sand Blasting
Power brush
Needle gun
Chemical preparation
Water jetting
Abrasive jetting etc.

Garnet is used instead of sand for blasting at hub power plant because of good cutting angle and non-
carcinogen ability. Mesh size of 20-60 is used as smaller size produces good surface profile.

Sand blasting setup consist of compressor, air vessel and nozzle.

For safety in sand blasting, user should wear special hood and gown and whole area is isolated and if
possible remove the equipment in order to avoid adverse effect of high velocity garnet particles.

Coating may be single, double or three-layer coat depending upon the application and paint properties.

Coating is divided into three basic coats in order of application:

Primer
Mid Coat
Top Coat

The purpose of Primer is to save the metal and hold the mid layer against the surface of the equipment.

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The purpose of mid coat is to save primer while the top coat is for good representation, color code and
ultraviolet protection etc.

Environmental condition is another concern during the application of coating. Nominal ranges are:

T > 3C (T= Surface temperature Dew point temperature)

40% < Relative Humidity< 80%

Coating thickness is another factor that need to be consider and it vary from coating to coating.

For structure it is about 325 microns four coat system which includes

Primer 60-100 microns

First Coat 100 microns
Second Coat 100 microns
Top Coat 50 microns

Following are some coating and its applications

Tanguard HB:

According to technical data sheet it contains polyamine cured epoxy coating and can be used as primer,
mid or final coat but at Hubpower station it is normally used as mid coat. Tanguard is find its application
as chemical resistant coating especially in areas exposed to sea water.

It has solid by volume of about 50% with flash point of around 25C, its typical dry film thickness is 100
microns with theoretical spreading rate of 6.3 m2/l.

N-10 Universal:

IT contains polyamine cured epoxy coating and can be used as primer, mid or final coat. According to
technical data sheet, it is a universal paint suitable for fast drying application and its high flexibility
enable it to be used in temperature variation areas. It can be applied at subzero temperature.

It has solid by volume of about 72% with flash point of around 30 C, its typical dry film thickness is 160
microns with theoretical spreading rate of 4.5 m2 /l.

Penguard Express (Red oxide):

According to technical data sheet it contains amine cured epoxy coating and can be used as primer, mid
or finished coat. It is fast drying and high solid paint find its application in corrosive environment with
high humidity and salt level.

It has solid by volume of about 74% with flash point of around 32 C, its typical dry film thickness is 125
microns and theoretical spreading rate of 5.9 m2/l.

Penguard Express MIO 80:

It is a variant of above coating but can only be used as mid coat and it is fast drying and micacious iron
oxide coating.

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It has solid by volume of about 74% with flash point of around 32 C, its typical dry film thickness is 175
microns and theoretical spreading rate of 4.2 m2/l.

Hardtop XP

It is composed of aliphatic acrylic polyurethane coating and used as top coat in open atmosphere. It has
very good appearance and low dry spray property.

It has solid by volume of about 63% with flash point of around 30 C, its typical dry film thickness is 50 to
100 microns and theoretical spreading rate of 12.6 to 6.3 m2/l.

Polyglass (Vinyl ester):

It is composed of cold cured glass flake vinyl ester acrylic co-polymer and it is suitable of highly corrosive
environment and a perfect replacement of rubber lining in under water application and provide good
resistance to sea water.

It has solid by volume of about 99% with flash point of around 28 C, its typical dry film thickness is 750
microns and theoretical spreading rate of 1.33 m2/l.

Zinc Silicate High temperature applications in Feed water pump and steam air heater.

700 PSX Top coat for RFO tank to resist detrimental effect of Sulfur in exhaust gases

NACE standard

Coating Application by airless spray

The paint is pumped at high pressure through an orifice and expands rapidly in atmosphere causing
atomization. As air is not used to produce spray it is called airless spray. Some advantages of this
method are:

High production rate

Reduced overspray
Less thinner required, thus faster drying
Better penetration

Two most common types of pump used are Air Motor and electrically driven. Air motor are pneumatic
pumps that use compressed air at 4 to 7 bar pressure and produce pumping pressure by factor ranging
from 20 to 65. Electrically driven on other hand could not produce such high pressures and so is not
used in heavy duty paint application.

Safety: One special safety required while operating airless equipment is its high pressure. The
atomization of paint achieved is so high that it could diffuse through skin without breaking it. If
untreated it could result in loss of a limb or even prove fatal. Safety measures to be taken are:

Dont leave pressurized unit unattended.

Proper and secure connection should be ensured.

Components of airless equipment are:

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Paint supply: Container through which paint is drawn by pump.

Pump: As discussed earlier, pneumatic or electricity driven pumps to pressurize fluids.
Filter: Depending on coating thickness different mesh sizes are used to prevent choking of fluid
tip.
Hose: Connects spray gun with pump. The material should be such that it could withstand
coating material.

Paint Material Estimation

Estimating the amount of paint required for paint job is important to budget and order the paint. Once
the area that has to be painted is determined, it is divided into sections on the basis of coating, and their
surface areas are measured using simple geometric calculation. Against each coat required dry film and
wet film thickness is copied, this information is obtained from technical data sheet (TDS). Corresponding
to the desired thickness the theoretical spreading rate is given in TDS which is area painted per unit liter
of paint. The spreading rate could be adjusted according to the skill level and other tentative losses.
Finally to get the required volume of paint divide the surface area by the spreading rate.

Relative humidity reading of Paint shop

The conditions before blasting should be such that moisture formation on the surface needs to be
avoided as that would cause rust formation. For that relative humidity in the atmosphere should be
between 40% and 85%. The following equipment is used for checking conditions.

Dew point Meter

Before performing sand blasting it must be ensured that moisture in the air
wont cause rapid formation of rust on bare metal surface. To check conditions
dew point meter is used. It has a probe that is touched with the part to be sand
blasted which gives the surface temperature. Beside that there is another
separate sensor to measure humidity and dry bulb temperature of air. Using
psychrometry, it evaluates the wet bulb temperature and then calculates the
difference between surface temperature and dew point temperature of air.
This difference should be at least 3C to ensure no rust formation on surface
after sand blasting.

Inspection of Metal surface after blasting

For removal of paint and surface preparation sand blasting is mostly used due to fast rate and good
surface preparation. Surface preparation before paint could be applied is important to secure lasting
adhesion to the metal surface. Surface is prepared according to the specification mentioned in the
technical data sheet of the primer. For abrasive, garnite is used instead of sand as sand produces
carcinogen dust. Other abrasives like aluminum oxide and steel shot may be used depending on the
application. For testing of metal surface following tests are done:

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Testex Tape and thickness gauge

Once the surface is prepared through sand blasting, its profile needs
to be verified. To test the profile Testex tape is rubbed against the
surface to be tested. Testex tape is a two-layer tape composing of
foam and incompressible substrate. By pressing it on a textured
surface the foam absorbs the impression. Using thickness gauge
(0.002mm least count) the thickness of the tape is measured from
which 50 m (thickness of incompressible substrate) is subtracted to
get measure of surface profile.

Digital surface profile Gauge

It is a digital gauge with a needle of tungsten carbide and measures the surface profile. It is used where
many readings are to be taken and Testex tape may take too long.

Surface Comparator

It is used to compare the metal profile after blasting to

categorize it accordingly.

Salt Contaminant test

The test is performed to ensure that salt contaminants on the surface are not beyond a certain level as
provided by the paint manufacturer. The following equipment are used:

Filter Paper
Salt contamination meter
Injection

If the meter is not calibrated it is calibrated by use of calibration water and calibration plates of salt. To
perform test a dry filter paper is placed on the surface to be tested and demineralized water injected
through injection. The filter paper is left for a minute and then removed and placed on salt
contamination meter. The lid is closed and the reading is taken.

Chloride, Sulphate, Nitrate Kit

It is used to individually find concentration of chlorides, sulfate and nitrate with very high precision. It is
done when required by contractor especially for high budget projects.

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Inspection of Painting Work

The life of paint is very closely related with the skill of the painter and it is incumbent to inspect coating
to ensure painting specifications are met. For this following tests are performed:

Wet film Comb

It is a metal strip with different size teethes cut on its edges. By

inserting the edge in wet film of paint, wet film thickness is measured.

Holiday Detector

It is used to find pinholes in the paint, which is a paint defect. There are two variants present in ECP: 67
to 105 volt and 10kV to 50 kV.

The former is used for paint thickness less than 500 microns. A wet sponge is connected with the probe
and the test surface is grounded. When the sponge is wiped on the surface, any break in paint
completes the contact and the equipment beeps signaling coating failure.

The latter detector is used where paint thickness is above 500 microns as the low voltage is insufficient
to cause current conduction. The high voltage probe which is essentially a hard wire brush when swept
across the surface gives visible spark. As the structure is usually grounded it does not require separate
grounding.

Coating thickness Gauge

This equipment gives the dry film thickness of

paint on ferrous and non-ferrous metallic
surfaces. It can measure coating thickness up to
1600 m. The tip of the probe is placed against
the surface to get the paint thickness. In order to
calibrate the device there are zero test plates
along with test strips of known thickness.

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Pull Off Adhesion Tester

This method is used to test the adhesion strength of

coating and is a destructive test. It measures the
strength of weakest coat in a multi-coat paint. First
the surface of the coat is cleaned and smoothed
with emery paper. Then a dolly is glued with Araldite
to the surface and left for 2 to 3 hours. After the
glue dries coat around the dolly is removed. Then a
metallic annular base plate is placed with dolly in
center. The puller is then mounted on the plate and
the force is applied on the dolly. The puller has scale
in Mpa and Psi marked on it. With the help of ratchet, the nut on top of the puller is tightened which
increases force on the dolly until the coating breaks. The needle on the puller shows the maximum
pressure resisted by the coating.

Paint inspection Gauge

First thickness gauge is used to find the overall thickness of coat. Depending on the thickness of the coat
cutting tool is selected. Cutting tool is a round disc which is rolled on paint to cut the coat up to metal
surface. A line is also marked on the surface parallel to the cut. The paint inspection gauge of 30X
resolution is then used to align the scale given in gauge with line and layer thickness is measured in
divisions and recorded. The division is then multiplied by the value given in table according to the
cutting tool used to find layer thickness.

Unit 1 condenser Pass A Inlet

At Inlet

1- Filling of respective pitting with welding except some areas including junction of tube plate and
casing
2- Benzol filling for tube sealing is also required
3- Pitting is also detected is some areas
4- Grinding is required prior to coating of welded areas

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Unit 2 condenser pass B Inlet

1- Unit 2 was taken into forced outage after the leakage in condenser at 10:59
2- Minor pitting and tube leakage was detected at inlet while a large portion was found uncoated
at discharge.
3- But due to no severe damage the in it Unit 2 was brought back to operation

Culvert of Unit 1

1- 1-Visited culvert of unit 1 after completion of coating of polyglass vinyl ester for inspection.
2- Baring few exceptions the culvert was essentially in good condition.
3- Inspection was done through thickness gauge to measure DFT at points of repair.
4- The pipe area below the manhole was covered with fiberglass layer bonded with resin to protect
polyglass coating.
5- Sharp corners at the inlet of culvert were covered with barnacles which provided extra
protection to coating.

Blasting Area

Compressor pressurized air above 100 psi and forced it into air vessel

From where air is delivered to nozzle discharge through pneumatic switch and hose.

Pneumatic switch is also called dead man switch which is operated through manual handle.

Nozzle has a venturi shape

Live pressure is measured through needle pressure gauge and 100 psi is detected

Diameter of venturi is measured through nozzle gauge.