Modern pipeline maintenance requires advanced corrosion prevention systems in
order to prolong service cycles and to ensure reliable and sustainable operation features.
Corrosion is one of those occurrences that will affect the safe and efficient running of the
pipeline with the costs for shut down, lost production, product loss, environment
contamination and loss of customer confidence running into millions of Euros.
Coating degradation problems that lead to the creation of a corrosion risk within the
design life of a pipeline can mainly be attributed to one of the following causes: (1) an
inappropriate specification for the coating material and/or coating process; (2) poor surface
preparation and/or application; and (3) interaction with the operating environment like
humidity, salts, winds, temperatures. Poor surface preparation and coating application
continues to create problems with premature degradation, particularly loss of adhesion
resulting in disbondment.
Besides the traditional applied protective coating systems which make use of
chemical crosslink reactions for guaranteed corrosion protection, one might consider a
totally contradictory approach in order to protect metal pipelines against the penetration of
humidity and air.
Key words: visco-elastic coating, rehabilitation, subsea, polyisobutene, fieldjointcoating