Repairing Coating Flaws Quickly, Reliably & Consistently

Repairing_Coating_Flaws_Quickly_Reliably_Consistently_

Holiday defects in pipelines which are typically caused by manufacture/construction, installation damage or application issues, can lead to significant corrosion repercussions for asset owners.

Current coating repair methods vary widely and can include melt (popsicle) sticks, spatula applications, caulking guns, brush or spray coating.  These repair methods provide challenges; they often do not provide a consistently repeatable repair and typically use more coating than is necessary.The user has to estimate how much coating will be required and generally too much coating is mixed, meaning that much of it is not used or the pot life is exceeded so that all the remaining mixed coating cannot be applied to the various holidays being addressed.

Elcometer's latest product, the ElcoPatch™, offers an economic solution to all these issues by ensuring consistent, reliable coating flaw repairs - especially on Fusion Bonded Epoxy (FBE) coatings. ElcoPatch™ is ideal for pinhole repairs - which are often hard to detect visually but are easily identified when inspected using a holiday detector such as the Elcometer 236, the Elcometer 266 or the Elcometer 280. It can also be used to repair damage caused by dollies or pull stubs during coating adhesion testing.  Once identified and marked, an abrasion ring is placed over the site of the holiday and, using the supplied abrasion tool, the coating is abraded to provide a key for the coating repair. The abrasion ring has an internal diameter of 1½” (38mm) and the full area should be abraded.Once abraded, the ElcoPatch™ is placed over the abraded area (the patch has the same diameter as the abrasion ring). At this point, if required, the coating cartridge may be heated using Elcometer's cartridge heating system.

The cartridge is then attached to the applicator gun and the mixer nozzle is fitted to the cartridge. The mixer nozzle is then inserted into the filler port of the ElcoPatch™ and the coating is injected into the cavity.

Approximately 5ml (0.2fl oz) of coating is needed to fill the patch, but it is not necessary to measure this exact amount. Conveniently there are four equally spaced holes around the circumference of the ElcoPatch™. When the cavity is full, the coating will begin to flow through these holes indicating when the patch is full. Once the coating has cured the patch can be removed using the tab, leaving a 38mm (1.5") diameter repair around 635µm (25mils) thick.

Using the ElcoPatch™ to repair coating flaws is fast, easy; produces reliable, repeatable results; and as the coating is mixed as it passes down the nozzle, uses only the precise amount of coating required. To find out more about the ElcoPatch™, visit elcopatch.com or scan the QR code below.