Industrial painting: Cost savings through planned maintenance

Introduction

Industries operating in chemical and petrochemical processes are subject to aggressive operating conditions, diverse environments, and various substrate types. To protect these substrates, a wide range of specialized painting specifications is required to control corrosion. These coatings must be properly applied and thoroughly inspected to ensure their effectiveness. However, the high costs associated with these activities often lead to irregular repainting and refinishing cycles, which are essential for both corrosion control and maintaining the industrial plant’s appearance at satisfactory levels.

Unaccounted for costs include rework due to non-conformities, losses from component replacements caused by corrosion, and changes in metal profiles. Additionally, the potential for catastrophic accidents affecting human life, property, and the environment cannot be ignored. These factors contribute to the complexity of ensuring reliable industrial coatings and corrosion protection.

The challenge of cost-effective corrosion protection

Professionals responsible for paint maintenance face a critical challenge: how to maximize asset protection against corrosion while optimizing maintenance costs? Achieving the best results in industrial painting requires not only selecting the appropriate coating systems, but also ensuring their optimal performance. To accomplish this, the following steps are essential:

1. Identify the exposure conditions and operational environment of the surfaces.
2. Determine the required surface preparation methods.
3. Select the most suitable application technique.
4. Adhere to health, safety, and environmental regulations.
5. Evaluate alternative coating systems.
6. Assess the cost-benefit ratio of different options.
7. Finalize the selection of the appropriate paint system.

Understanding paint system durability

The ISO/EN 12944 standard classifies the durability of paint systems based on environmental exposure levels:

• Low durability: 2 to 5 years
• Medium durability: 5 to 15 years
• High durability: Over 15 years

For each durability category, paint systems consist of specific product combinations, including primers, intermediate coats, and finishing layers, formulated with various resin types to achieve the desired protective properties.

Optimizing maintenance strategies: Reactive vs. Planned maintenance

What is the best approach to executing industrial painting projects while ensuring quality control? Should maintenance be conducted reactively—repainting only after coatings deteriorate?

A reactive approach presents several drawbacks. It often leads to inefficient use of resources, loss of warranty coverage, and difficulties in tracking previous maintenance efforts. While it may seem logical to repaint only when deterioration becomes evident, experience has shown that this method is both costly and ineffective. Once coatings degrade, surface preparation becomes more intensive and expensive, often requiring extensive work on large areas of industrial equipment.

The more effective strategy is preventive maintenance—a structured approach that involves rigorous planning of repainting and refinishing cycles. When combined with comprehensive quality control management, this method ensures the optimal balance between protection and aesthetics, ultimately extending the service life of industrial assets while reducing long-term costs.

A tool for cyclic corrosion control

To address these issues, a tool is needed for the cyclical control of corrosion management and the oversight of industrial painting services. Founded in Brazil, PGPI Asset Integrity Engenharia Ltda. has redefined the management of industrial painting and thermal insulation maintenance. Now setting its sights on international markets, the company brings a groundbreaking solution to the industry. Powered by its proprietary PGPI© technology, this innovative system operates seamlessly online via B2B SaaS, ensuring full traceability, optimized efficiency, and cost reductions of up to 50% over the lifespan of industrial assets.

Planned maintenance painting: A Cost-Effective solution

Planned maintenance painting is an economical and efficient approach based on the principles of preventive maintenance. By keeping painted surfaces intact for as long as possible, this method ensures the lowest overall maintenance costs over time.

When is the right time to repaint?

Is there an optimal time to repaint? Yes—both technically and economically. The best time to perform maintenance painting is not just when deterioration becomes visible but when proactive intervention can extend coating life, minimize costs, and maintain structural integrity.

How to control painting maintenance costs in Large-Scale industrial environments

Industrial facilities often contain thousands of painted components with varying geometries, exposed to different environmental conditions, and requiring diverse coating systems. How can maintenance costs be effectively managed in such complex scenarios?

The key lies in developing a systematic maintenance program that accounts for all relevant variables and enables proactive intervention before corrosion spreads. More importantly, this approach focuses on minimizing surface preparation—the most expensive aspect of industrial painting. Studies and industry experience confirm that reducing the need for extensive surface preparation significantly lowers overall maintenance costs.

Conclusion: Cost savings through planned painting

Based on these principles, the most effective way to reduce paint maintenance costs is through a structured planned painting strategy, which delivers substantial cost reductions over time. The savings primarily result from decreased surface preparation requirements.

The key benefits of adopting a planned maintenance painting approach include:

1. Optimized work schedules: Ensuring a balanced workload, reducing idle periods, and avoiding work overload.
2. Extended coating durability: Increasing the lifespan of protective paint systems.
3. Reduced annual painting requirements: By distributing maintenance efforts efficiently, fewer areas need to be repainted each year, leading to significant long-term cost reductions.

References

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