Technical Service Center
Materials Engineering and Research Lab
Coatings
We provide guide specifications and technical advice on selecting, applying, monitoring, and inspecting paints and protective coatings. Our experts conduct applied research to evaluate new coating systems. Our advice and assistance to Reclamation's Regional, Area, and Project Offices includes:
- Environmentally acceptable, low cost, durable coating systems and processes needed to:
- Maintain and/or replace old coatings
- Rejuvenate existing, deteriorated coatings on Reclamation facilities
- Apply to new facilities
- Guidelines for removing deteriorated coatings safely and in an environmentally acceptable way.
- Assistance with complying with changes in environmental and worker safety regulations of the protective coatings industry and Reclamation-specific guidelines associated with these regulations.
We provide guide specifications for coatings in CSI format for Reclamation.
We published the “Guide to Protective Coatings: Inspection and Maintenance” in September 2002.
We are currently working on a research program where we can evaluate the remaining service life of protective coatings using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS).