Corrosion protection for industrial, industrial maintenance and marine markets can be an expensive and overwhelming task. Protecting objects such as oil platforms, bridges, storage tanks, steel structures, concrete walls and floors, and ship decks from corrosion is labor-intensive, with high material costs. Still, one of the best methods for fighting corrosion is the use of protective coatings.
Coatings provide corrosion protection by one or a combination of three basic mechanisms: barrier, inhibitive and/or sacrificial. A physical barrier between the substrate and its environment may act by keeping oxygen and moisture away from the substrate. Examples include coal tar enamels and vinyl coatings. An inhibitive coating may act by passivating the metal and interfering with the corrosion process. Most such coatings are based on epoxies and urethanes. A sacrificial coating will itself corrode instead of the metal or steel structure it protects. Such a coating would be zinc-rich or metallized.