Chilean Warship Installs E650 Non-Skid Deck Coating | Military Grade Mil-PRF-24667B Epoxy

Chilean Warship, CNS Cochrane, Installs Military Grade Mil-PRF-24667B Non-Skid Decking System With Combination of E650, E591, E15M and HyperFlex Epoxies

DESCRIPTION

The CNS Cochrane, a Type 23 Frigate 4,900 tons 436′ long warship stationed at the TALCAHUANO Naval Base was due to install a new, Military-Grade non-skid coating system along the length of its deck. Given the environmental elements common to the ship’s patrol area, the guidelines of the Chilean Navy, and the immense vibrations that occur when the Cochrane’s main cannon is fired, an extremely robust system was needed to ensure project success. That’s when the General Contractor, Armabas, turned to product experts at Exterior Performance Coatings for guidance.

Given the complex operations of a naval vessel, and varying environmental factors on different parts of the ship, slightly different product mixes were used on different portions of the deck after a thorough Blast Preparation. Each is outlined below.

Preparation

The steel surface of the Cochrane’s deck was prepared using a blast process designed to most effectively remove all the old deck coating and scaling rust to meet Commercial SSPC-SP6 / NACE 3 specifications for preparing metal. They used Copper Slag which is a low dusting blast media that is chemically inert, that allows for blasting the surface with an abrasive that is safe and reliable. To recapture the blast media and keep it out of the environment they used a tenting system to encapsulate the work areas. The result was a clean surface that offered excellent bonding and ready application of the E15M Epoxy Metal Primer.

General Areas

For the majority of the deck, the system consisted of 2 coats of our E15m Rust Resistant Epoxy Primer (an excellent priming option when applying a system to steel) applied at 200′ per gallon followed by 1 coat of the E591 Underwater Rated Moisture Tolerant Epoxy (this unique product is so adaptable that it can even be applied underwater!) applied at 130′ per gallon and a coat of our E650 Non-Skid Epoxy which meets Navy Military Specification Mil-PRF-24667B for Non-Skid Deck Coatings applied at 30′ Per Gallon. The E650 Epoxy is an exceptionally textured anti-slip, non-skid product that is commonly used on Naval Vessels around the world for both deck and helipad safety.

Main Gun Turret

The Cochrane features one main cannon turret. During live fire operations, this cannon imparts immense reverberations throughout the deck area immediately surrounding the cannon. This often presents a problem to standard coating systems and commonly leads to system cracking. To get around that, an immensely flexible intermediary coat was needed to stabilize the overall system. For this area, they applied 1 coat of the E15m Epoxy Primer at 200′ per gallon, a flexible intermediate coat of the venerable HyperFLEX Flexible Epoxy (this immensely flexible epoxy boasts an elongation rate of 150% @ ASTM D-638) followed by 1 coat of the E591 Moisture Tolerant Epoxy applied at 130′ per gallon at 80′ per gallon and then installed one coat of the non-skid epoxy topcoat E650 at 30 sq’/gallon.

Application Methods

The E15M Epoxy Primer was applied using a spray unit. The E591 Moisture Tolerant Epoxy was also applied using a sprayer. The HyperFlex Epoxy was applied using a 3/4″ nap lint free epoxy roller. The E650 Non-Skid Epoxy was first applied using a trowel with no notches and then a dry backroll (adding no new material) using a hairless phenolic core roller.