STAINLESS STEEL & ALUMINUM COATING FOR

INSTRUMENTATION EQUIPMENT
Posted on | July 6, 2010 | No Comments
Stainless steel and aluminum are the most used steel for instrumentation
equipment material of construction. Stainless steel usually use as control valve body, on-off valve
body, flow meter body, magnetic level gauge, level measurement external chamber, and any other
ancillaries of instrumentation. Aluminum on the other side are also widely use as a material for
enclosure of any transmitter, switch, or any electronic part of instrumentation that need to be
housed properly as per related hazardous area. By default, the stainless steel and aluminum are
high corrosion resistant metal. It’s almost durable for any application except for fluid that contains
high chloride composition like sea water etc. Even though stainless steel and aluminum do not need
any coating since they are a high corrosion resistant metal, most of the oil & gas project for
offshore application require that stainless steel to be coated as additional protection. So, how to
coat the Stainless steel & aluminum?
In general, the stainless steel is well suited to have an epoxy coated for offshore application as per
NACE recommendation. It will have the following coating scheme in typical.
Application Coating System Dry Film Thickness Surface Preparation
(DFT)
Up to 120 C 1. Epoxy As per Vendor SSPC SP 5 (1st
Primer recommendation quality) or SSPC SP
2. Polyuret 10 (2nd quality)The
hane surface shall sweep
From 120 C up to 1. Silicone- As per Vendor blast with dry non-
450 C based High Build recommendation ferrous metal, or
Coating non metal grit (free
2. Silicone- chloride) to obtain
based High Build anchor profile 25
Coating µm to 45 µm (or in
typical 20% of total
DFT)

In addition any coating material for stainless steel shall not contain chloride (Stainless steel is not
well resist to the chloride containing material) or zinc material. Zinc material is a more anode
material while stainless steel is a more cathode material. Coating a stainless steel with a zinc
containing material can cause a galvanic corrosion to the stainless steel it self. Even though the
coating of a carbon steel with zinc is also cause a galvanic couple, but the reaction between carbon
steel and zinc isn’t cause a corrosion to the carbon steel, moreover the zinc will sacrificed and the
carbon steel will still a live (anode sacrificial). But when the zinc is in couple with the stainless steel,
the zinc will react with the nickel content in the stainless steel and make a nickel-zinc compound
which draws the nickel from stainless steel. The development of this nickel-zinc will change the
stainless steel properties and can cause a cracking to the stainless steel. That’s why zinc is best
suite for carbon steel but must be avoided for stainless steel.