HVAC coils and equipment subject to ocean air or water must be protected in order to withstand the especially harsh corroding factors present in a marine or coastal environment. Due to the abundance of sodium chloride (salt), temperature fluctuations, and UV exposure, the potential for rapid and highly damaging corrosion on HVAC coils and units is inevitable without protective coatings formulated for harsh environments. The need for coastal environment protection occurs farther from the shoreline than you might imagine. Although distance from shore is certainly a factor, it is also important to consider prevailing wind direction, relative humidity, wet/dry time, and coil temperature to determine if a unit should be protected against corrosive marine elements. Studies have shown sodium chloride and pollutants can have a significant corrosive impact on HVAC coils as far away as 5 miles from the coast thanks to mist or fog.
Although many tests exist to help measure the potential performance of HVAC-R coatings, at Heresite we believe in cyclic testing to estimate a product’s performance in real-world conditions. We are proud to say that P-413, our thin film corrosion resistant coating, was the first HVAC-R coating to successfully meet the demanding requirements of the ISO 12944-9 cyclic test. Heresite’s ES-600 high-performace epoxy-silane has also been tested using ISO 12944-9 and has demonstrated superior performance in demanding CX environments. ISO 12944-9 (formerly ISO 20340) tests the coating by cycling between salt spray, UV radiation and freezing temperatures for 25 weeks.
Unlike other tests, the ISO 12944-9 is a cyclic test, which mimics real world environments much more realistically. While lab conditions can only approximate real-world corrosivity, we feel that ISO 12944-9 provides a more accurate result than B 117, which is a static test. Marine environmental conditions change constantly. For this reason, we have tested P-413 and ES-600 against both B 177 and ISO 12944-9 to help our customers predict coating effectiveness in their particular environments.
In addition to ISO 12944-9 (formerly ISO 20340), Heresite coatings have been tested using the following testing methods:
