ABSTRACT
Organic coatings that use epoxy resins are widely used for protecting steel and metal against weathering and corrosion. The anti-corrosion performance of a coating depends on several factors, including the characteristics of the coating system. The study of experimental design originated with R. A. Fisher in the early 1900s in England. During these early years, it was associated solely with agricultural experimentation. An experiment is conducted to determine the effects of pressure and temperature on the hardness of a new type of plastic, where hardness is rated on a scale of 1 to 10. The problem of acquiring good experimental data is analogous to the problem faced by a communications engineer. The receipt of any signal, verbal or otherwise, depends on the volume of the signal and the amount of background noise. Noise reduction in an experimental design, the removal of extraneous experimental variation, can be accomplished by an appropriate assignment of treatments to the experimental units.
