One of the most widely-used standards in the coatings industry is getting a facelift. SSPC, the Society for Protective Coatings, announced recently that it had made technical revisions and editorial clarifications to its coating application standard, SSPC-PA 2, Procedure for Determining Conformance to Dry Coating Thickness Requirements. SSPC’s PA 2 is one of the most widely-referenced standards in the protective coatings industry. PA 2 first hit the industry in 1973, and has been refreshed several times since. These latest updates were effective May 2, 2012.
This latest revision includes new descriptions for determining and documenting whether dry coatings conform to the minimum and maximum thickness specified. Some of the other technical revisions include:
- Eliminating descriptions of gages and their operation (these will be included in upcoming revisions of the ASTM D7091)
- Rewriting Section 9 on determining compliance with specified DFT to allow the specifier to reference a greater or lesser “coating thickness restriction” than the default requirement
- Adding new language for determining and documenting the extent of nonconforming areas (found in Section 8.2.4 and subsections)
- Modifiying the nonmandatory note on overcoating to allow the use of ultrasonic gages that have the ability to distinguish coating layers for measurement of DFT on overcoated structures
- Adding two new non-mandatory appendices—one for measuring the DFT of coatings on edges and the other for measuring DFT on coated steel pipe exteriors
Visit the SSPC Web site for information on how to get a copy of the standard, and contact your Induron sales representative if you have questions on how the revised standards may affect your facilities.
Founded in 1947, Induron manufactures high performance coatings that serve a range of industrial applications, including the wastewater, transmission and distribution and groundwater storage industries. Learn more about us at www.Induron.com.