The effect of steel substrate topography on cathodic delamination has been investigated in this study.
Different surface preparation methods have been used to prepare different surface contours. The rate
of delamination was found to be reduced by a greater tortuosity of the coating-steel interface.
Furthermore it was found that the tortuosity of the coating-steel interface can be controlled by e.g. the
grain size of the blasting material and the impact velocity of the applied abrasive. In other words the
study showed that the surface preparation can be used to control and minimize the rate of cathodic
delamination. However, the peak density should not be too high because the valleys may become too
narrow for complete wetting. This may be particularly important for pigmented coatings because
pigment particles may get trapped in the valley and prevent complete wetting of the substrate. In other
words, the coating’s physical properties should be optimized with maximum wetting properties so that
substrates with high tortuosity can be utilised.
Key words: Cathodic delamination, substrate topography, tortuosity.