Technical guides, standards and industrial comparisons

Under API 653, a composite repair is never the starting point: the inspection finding is. This guide maps typical findings on tank bottoms, shells, roofs and nozzles to their usual repair family, sets out when a composite repair is acceptable and who decides, and covers the file, the shutdown planning and the mistakes that turn a repair into an inspection dispute.

A corroded tube sheet or water box is usually found when the exchanger is opened for a leak or a scheduled outage, with little time to decide. This guide sets out the damage you will meet, how to inspect it, which repair option fits which damage, and the epoxy rebuild and coating procedure step by step, including its limits.

Cathodic protection makes buried or immersed steel the cathode of a cell so that it stops corroding. This guide compares sacrificial anodes and impressed current, shows where each is used, and explains why the coating and the CP system have to be selected together. It also covers cathodic disbondment, overprotection, interference, measurements and maintenance.

Every coating defect points to a cause: salts left on the steel, a missed recoat window, too much film, too little at the edges. This guide describes what each failure looks like, its probable causes, the test that confirms it and the repair that keeps it from coming back, then sets out the field method for a coating failure analysis.

Heat exchanger corrosion is rarely one mechanism. Tubes pit and erode, tube sheets and water boxes suffer galvanic and crevice attack, plate exchangers corrode under their gaskets. This guide maps each component to its mechanisms, the prevention measures that work and the repair options when damage is already there.

Metal repair epoxy putties, cold weld compounds and metal-filled epoxies are the same family of products, and they do not all do the same job. The filler, the physical form and the resin system decide where a grade works. This guide covers how to match the product to the substrate, the service and the repair, why surface preparation decides the result, and where a filled epoxy is the wrong answer.

An ore processing plant concentrates every degradation mechanism in one building: impact, abrasion, slurry erosion, reagent chemistry and wet atmosphere. This guide walks the concentrator from the crusher to the process water lines, names the mechanism attacking each piece of equipment, and matches it with the protection that suits it, with a link to the detailed guide for each case.

When abrasive blasting is ruled out by a running plant, a dust ban or a small repair, the specification has to name a power tool grade instead. This guide compares SSPC-SP 2, SP 3, SP 11 and SP 15, their approximate ISO 8501-1 counterparts, the tools that reach each grade and the coating systems that can live with them.

In industrial effluent systems, the worst concrete damage is rarely below the water: it is above it, where hydrogen sulfide escapes and bacteria turn it into sulfuric acid. This guide explains the mechanism, where it concentrates, how to assess the damage, and how to repair the concrete and select a lining that survives a wet, acidic, hard-to-isolate structure.

A bearing that spins on its shaft or in its housing leaves a worn, oval or fretted seat that no new bearing will fix. This guide covers how to measure the damage and find its cause, how a cold rebuild with metal-filled epoxy compares with weld build-up, metallizing, sleeving and replacement, and the two ways to restore the fit: build up and machine, or mould against a release-coated bearing or mandrel.

A custom part that corrodes early was usually given the wrong material, or the right alloy was spoiled in fabrication. This guide starts from the service conditions, compares stainless, duplex, nickel alloys, titanium, FRP and coated or lined carbon steel, and covers what welding, passivation, crevice-free design and material certificates change.

Aluminum against stainless, steel against copper, galvanized steel against stainless: most galvanic couples found in a plant come from the same short list of pairs. This guide covers the four conditions a galvanic couple needs, why the potential gap and the area ratio set its severity, a catalogue of the common pairs with the fix for each, and the special case of fasteners.

SAG and ball mills, crushers, reciprocating compressors and turbines load their foundations with weight, cyclic forces, impact and heat. Epoxy grout is the usual link between the machine and the concrete, but most grout failures come from design and pour, not from the product. This guide covers grout design, anchor bolts, concrete preparation, the pour and how to verify the result.

Wear protection fails most often because it was chosen for the wrong mechanism. This guide shows how to read abrasion, impact, erosion, cavitation and sliding wear on a worn part, compares the main solution families, from AR and manganese steel to ceramic-filled epoxy and thermal spray, and points to the detailed guide for each case.

Structural steel, walkways and pipe racks rarely need a full repaint all at once. This guide covers how to assess an aged corrosion protection coating, how to choose between spot touch-up, overcoating and full removal, which preparation and coating systems fit each case, and how to execute the work in a plant that keeps running.

Reactors, columns, separators and pressure vessels corrode in ways a storage tank does not: process chemistry, deposits, liquid-vapour interfaces and acid condensates. This guide covers the usual mechanisms, the protection options from alloy to internal lining, local pitting repair, the regulatory frame around a pressure boundary and how linings are inspected during a shutdown.

A coating specification that asks for "salt spray hours" and nothing else qualifies very little. Continuous salt fog and cyclic corrosion tests answer different questions. This guide compares the two families, explains why continuous fog often ranks coatings differently from the field, and shows how to write a test requirement that a laboratory can execute and a reviewer can check.

Industrial corrosion is not one problem but a dozen, each with its own appearance, its own favourite locations and its own cure. This guide explains the electrochemistry in plain terms, maps the twelve forms met in plants, summarizes the environmental factors and ISO corrosivity categories, and sets out how to diagnose the mechanism on site before choosing a prevention strategy.

A worn chute, hopper or cyclone rarely waits for a new liner package. It has to be repaired inside the next shutdown, with the crew and the access available. This guide covers how to read the wear mechanism, what to measure before the stop, which repair option fits which zone, and how to apply a ceramic-filled epoxy on site so it lasts until the next window.

Bare concrete is porous and chemically reactive: it does not hold a spill, and many process chemicals attack it. A secondary containment coating turns a concrete dike, pit or sump into a liquid-tight barrier. This guide covers concrete preparation and moisture testing, how to choose a chemical resistant system for the stored product, detailing of joints and coves, and the quality control that proves the lining is continuous.

Corrosion under insulation is the wall loss nobody sees until a line leaks through its cladding. This guide explains how water, heat and chlorides combine under insulation, which locations fail first, which inspection methods find the damage, and how coating, insulation design and a risk-based program keep CUI under control.

The right tank lining is decided by the service, not by the product catalogue. This guide walks through the selection criteria (stored product, temperature, vacuum, abrasion, cleaning, potable water and food contact), compares the main lining families, and explains how resistance charts, immersion tests and weld details turn a shortlist into a specification.

A leaking line that cannot be shut down leaves three families of repair: mechanical clamps and enclosures, sealants and rapid-cure tapes, and engineered composite wraps. None of them fits every leak. This guide covers how to assess the leak first, what each method can and cannot do, and what decides whether the repair is temporary or permanent.

Whether to repair or replace a corroded or worn piece of equipment is decided by four sets of criteria: technical integrity, the operating constraints of the shutdown, life cycle cost and the risk carried by each option. This guide lays out the method, a step-by-step decision table and typical cases for pumps, exchangers, tanks, piping and chutes.

Butterfly, knife gate, plug, check and cast iron gate valves all wear in predictable places. When the pressure wall is still sound, a metal- or ceramic-filled epoxy rebuild restores the body and its seat areas without welding. This guide covers where each valve type wears, how to read the damage, when to repair or replace, and how the repair is done and tested.

Alumina ceramic and AR steel solve different wear problems. Ceramic wins on sliding abrasion and fine-particle erosion; AR steel wins where impact and site welding dominate. This guide compares their properties, explains what AR400 and AR500 really mean, covers composite liners and ceramic-filled epoxy repairs, and gives a selection method based on cost per tonne handled.

Cold repair with epoxy and composite systems removes the flame and the welding arc from work in a classified area, but not every ignition source. This guide explains zone classification in Europe and Canada, why hot work is so heavy to manage there, and the cold work procedure that replaces it.

Cavitation, erosion and corrosion eat pump casings and impellers long before the rest of the pump is worn out. This guide covers how to identify the damage mechanism at teardown, the step-by-step epoxy repair procedure, which material suits which mechanism, and when the part should be replaced instead.

Per-litre price is a poor basis for choosing a protective coating. This guide breaks the life cycle cost into its real components, shows how to compare systems with net present value and equivalent annual cost, and explains why downtime so often decides the outcome.

Cold bonding repairs metal with filled epoxy compounds and no heat input; welding restores metallurgical continuity but brings hot work, a heat-affected zone and code requirements. This guide walks through the cold bonding process step by step, compares both methods criterion by criterion, and sets out where each one is the wrong choice.

CSA Z245.30 governs external coatings applied to steel pipelines in the field — girth weld joints, repairs and rehabilitation. This guide explains the FC1 to FC7 system classes, the qualification and testing requirements, and how the standard fits with CSA Z662 and the Z245.20 series.

There is no single lifespan figure for an immersion epoxy: two linings made from the same product can fail years apart. This guide covers the factors that set tank lining service life, the failure mechanisms behind premature breakdown, the QC tests that catch defects before start-up, and how to decide between spot repair and full relining.

Copper-alloy, stainless or titanium tubes rolled into a carbon-steel tube sheet form a galvanic cell as soon as cooling water fills the channel. This guide covers where the attack occurs, why area ratio and water conductivity set its severity, how to recognise it, and which prevention and repair measures actually work.

Every corrosion course shows the galvanic series; few explain how to use it. Here is the full table in seawater, ordered from noble to active, and the three rules — potential gap, area ratio, electrolyte — that turn a list of metals into real design and maintenance decisions.

ISO 12944 is the global bible of steel structure anti-corrosion protection. This guide decodes the 6 atmospheric corrosivity categories and how to choose the right coating system.

SSPC-SP 10/NACE No. 2 is the near-white metal blast grade specified for most immersion and severe-service coatings. This guide gives the exact definition, compares it with SP 5, SP 6 and the rest of the SSPC family, and covers what the standard leaves to the specification: profile, salts, dust, dew point and time to primer.

Pitting corrosion perforates a wall while the surface around the pits still looks sound, which is why it causes so many unexpected leaks. This guide covers the autocatalytic mechanism, the metals and conditions that pit, the ASTM G46 pit shapes, PREN and the ASTM G48 and G150 tests. It then explains how to find, assess, prevent and repair pitting on real equipment.

Most industrial epoxies are formulated for application at 10 °C or above. In Quebec and Ontario, the shutdown window that matters most runs from November to January, when unheated tanks, pipe racks and containment areas sit well below that. This guide explains what actually goes wrong when epoxy is applied cold, how to measure the four numbers that decide whether a coating will cure, and which combination of low-temperature formulation, heating and dehumidification makes a winter lining job succeed.

A flange that leaks after a new gasket and a torque check usually has a damaged face, not a gasket problem. Crevice corrosion under the gasket, erosion at the bore and pitting from a wet stream all destroy the sealing surface. This guide explains how to inspect a flange face, the three repair options and their limits, and how a metal-filled epoxy rebuild is done in place — in a few hours, without hot work, during a shutdown or a short isolation.

On a Canadian pipeline, the mill coats the pipe and the field coats the joints. The field joint is the smallest part of the line and the one that fails first when it is done badly. CSA Z245.30 exists for that reason. Here is how the standard shapes the work, which field joint systems are in use, and what an owner should expect to see in the applicator's file.

A pump that loses alignment, vibrates after every overhaul, or shows cracked grout around the baseplate has a foundation problem, not a pump problem. Replacing bearings and seals treats the symptom. This guide covers how to tell a foundation failure from a machine failure, what epoxy grout does that cementitious grout cannot, and when the concrete itself has to be rebuilt.

A leaking graphite heat exchanger is not automatically scrap. Between tube plugging, crack sealing and composite resurfacing, restoration puts years of service back into the unit at a fraction of the cost and lead time of a new one. Here is how to decide — and how the work is actually done.

A tank sealed inside a building, a pipe buried under a slab, a heat exchanger whose removal costs more than the repair: in those cases the coating is applied in place, on the equipment where it stands. It is a discipline of its own, with its own constraints on preparation, ambient conditions and access — and its own limits, best known before committing.

"Corrosion protection" covers five approaches that have almost nothing in common: isolating the metal, protecting it with a metal that corrodes in its place, changing alloy, imposing a current, or acting on the environment itself. The right answer depends on the corrosion mechanism at work, on access and on the expected service life — not on the catalogue. Here is how to decide.

"I need this part in ATEX." The request arrives exactly like that, and on its own it means nothing. A mechanical part is not ATEX-certified the way a motor is: it is designed not to become an ignition source in a given zone. Here is what that imposes on the designer, the material and the documentation — and why "ATEX" is the wrong word in Canada.

A wear part that cracks in three weeks and one that wears out too fast share a cause: the wrong grade. Hadfield manganese and high-chrome white iron answer two opposite mechanisms — impact and abrasion — and are constantly fitted to the wrong duty. Here is how to decide, and why unit price is the worst criterion available.

The original supplier no longer exists, the drawings cannot be found, and the only reference available is the broken part in your hand. Industrial reverse engineering solves this every day — provided you measure the right features, reconstruct the design intent, and avoid copying the wear. Here is the method and where it goes wrong.

An internal tank lining rarely fails because of the product. It fails because the shutdown window was planned around application time, forgetting the blasting, the dew point, the cure and the inspection. Here is the real sequence of a lining job, what makes it slip, and the questions to ask before signing.

API 510 completes the in-service trilogy with API 570 (piping) and API 653 (tanks): it governs pressure vessels after they enter service. For maintenance teams, it frames the run-repair-replace decision when inspection finds damage — and it is the strictest of the three about what a repair must demonstrate. A practical read, Canadian context included.

API 570 is the code your inspector is applying when a thickness reading on a process line comes back low. Understanding how it classifies piping, where it measures, and what it requires of a repair is the difference between a planned intervention and an unplanned shutdown. A practical read for maintenance and reliability teams.

ASME PCC-2 is the standard most often cited to justify a composite repair on piping or pressure equipment. It is also the standard most often misunderstood: PCC-2 designs and qualifies a repair — it does not, by itself, make that repair acceptable. Here is what Part 4 actually covers, how it relates to ISO 24817, and where its authority ends.

"3,000 hours salt spray" is the most quoted number on coating datasheets — and the most misread. ASTM B117 is a controlled comparison tool, not a service-life predictor. Here is what the test actually does, why hours do not convert to years, and how to use B117 results intelligently when selecting or specifying a coating.

Crevice corrosion needs no film defect, no unusual chemistry, no mistake in alloy selection — just a tight gap where fluid can enter and stagnate. It is the mechanism behind failed flange faces, perforated lap joints and corroded bolted connections on alloys that were "rated for the service". Here is how the occluded cell works and what design can do about it.

Half the world's coating specifications describe blast cleanliness with ISO 8501 Sa grades; the other half with SSPC/NACE designations. Projects that mix suppliers, applicators and inspectors from both worlds end up with both systems in one document — and disputes at handover. Here is how the two frameworks relate, and how to keep one of them in charge.

Microbiologically influenced corrosion is responsible for a remarkable share of unexplained perforations — firewater lines, tank bottoms, dead legs, heat exchangers. It is not a new chemistry of corrosion but an acceleration of familiar ones, driven by biofilms. Here is how it works, how to recognize it, and what actually controls it.

NACE International and SSPC merged into AMPP in 2021, yet purchase orders, project specifications and coating procedures still cite the old designations. This map shows how the legacy names relate, what AMPP kept, and how to write a specification that no bidder can misread.