Top-notch articles about great technological innovations, cutting-edge systems, and success stories of the protective coatings industry.
The issue you are about to read was conceived to be a special edition for several exhibitions and conferences in the field, the OTC 2020 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, for example, which has been cancelled in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Indeed, it is a very rich and stimulating issue, highlighting some major industry trends:
- Waterborne is the future even in protective coatings, once firmly convinced that solvent borne was the only possible choice for anticorrosion coatings or inhibitors or zinc-lamellar technology.
- Environmental friendliness remains a hot topic for the protective coatings industry: research & development are focusing on chrome-free anti-corrosion inhibitors for ferrous metals, on water-based VPCI and on biobased and biodegradable rust preventatives.
- For its exceptional mechanical properties, graphene is catching on in many different coating applications: in this issue, we report about what is believed to be the world's largest single application of graphene on a cargo vessel's hull.
- Last but not least, thermal spray (High Velocity Thermal Spray with next generation alloy materials, in particular) is becoming more and more used as a high performance cladding solution to stop corrosion for without any further maintenance anticipated for at least 15+ years.