High Performance Surface Tolerant Coatings have now been in use for over 25 years. This paper reviews the benefits and limitations of these coatings and attempts to give a realistic estimation of expected performance in a range of environments from bridges, coastal refineries and steel plants to offshore maintenance. The evaluation of these materials is described and the formulation development necessary to give good performance over both rusty hand-prepared steel and intact old coatings. Unfortunately the panacea of a long lasting coating for minimally prepared steel in an aggressive environment does not yet appear to have been reached.
Key Words: Epoxy, Urethane, Red Lead, Petroleum