ABSTRACT
A coating failure can be considered to have arisen in any situation where the coating system has failed to attain its potential life. Often, the failure cannot be attributed to a single cause but occurs because of a general lack of attention to a number of facets involved in the coating process; typically, selection of the wrong system for the environment, inadequate surface preparation and poor quality control of application. Failures of this type have serious economic implications because a reduction in the anticipated life from, say 6 years to 4 years involves a considerable increase in costs for maintenance. Any organisation faced with a continuing failure to achieve the coating lives that can be reasonably anticipated in a particular set of circumstances would be well advised to examine its own processes for selection, specification and quality control.
