Section 10 — Material Requirements

Protective Coatings for Heat Exchangers

IPE Engineering Practice IPE-EP-10-3-4

Document number: IPE-EP-10-3-4 · Section: 10 — Material Requirements

SCOPE

This Practice provides information for the surface preparation and coating of heat exchanger internals that are subject to aqueous corrosion.
Heat Exchanger internals such as channel heads, floating heads etc., in cooling water service shall be prepared and coated per this Practice. Tubesheets shall be prepared and coated before tubes are installed; the coating shall be applied to areas which are in water service.
An Asterisk (*) indicates that a decision by the Owner’s Engineer or Owner is required, or that additional information is furnished by the Purchaser.
Any deviation from this Practice must be approved by the procedure described in EP 1–1–3.

2.0 REFERENCES

The latest edition of the following standards and publications are referred to herein.

STANDARDS AND PUBLICATIONS

Engineering Practices
EP 1–1–3 Deviations to Engineering Practices EP 10–3–1 Shop Painting
SSPC
SP 1 Solvent Cleaning SP 5 White Metal Blast Cleaning

DEFINITIONS

Inspector – A Refining Company appointed engineer or inspector.
Manufacturer – The recipient of a direct or indirect purchase order for materials and/or equipment. In this context, a direct order is one issued to a manufacturer by a contractor or the Owner. An indirect order is one issued to a manufacturer by a vendor (recipient of a direct order) for materials, fabricated components, or subassemblies.
Owner – Refining Company.
Owner’s Engineer – A Refining Company appointed engineer.
Purchase Order – The contractual document given to the Manufacturer to authorize a purchase.
Purchaser – The party placing a direct purchase order. The Purchaser is the Owner’s designated representative.

4.0 SURFACE PREPARATION

The exchanger parts shall be solvent cleaned to SSPC SP1, and then abrasive blasted to SSPC SP 5, white metal blast (SSPC specifications outlined in EP 10–3–1). A 3 mil blast profile minimum is required.

COATING SELECTION

A high quality epoxy paint shall be selected based upon the equipment service requirements along with the desired application particulars.
For general cooling water applications Wisconsin Protective Coating Plasite 7156 is recommended because of its low temperature cure properties and its ability to withstand elevated temperature service (if cured above 70ºF). If Plasite 7156 is applied by brush and roll methods, four coats are required.
For sour water applications up to 150ºF operating temperature Plasite 7111 or 7122 are preferred due to their good chemical resistance properties. Plasite 9570 may be used for sour water service up to 200ºF. Plasite 9570 requires a 200ºF temperature cure for four hours.

COATING

(*) Before mixing of the paint, an authorized Owner inspector shall approve the surface preparation.
(*) The inspector shall witness the paint mixing and application of at least the first coat of paint, and insure that all of the paint Manufacturer’s product application recommendations are followed.
The batch code from the paint container(s) shall be recorded on the paint Manufacturer’s specification bulletin and forwarded to the Owner.
A minimum of three coats of paint are required to achieve a minimum of 10 mil dry film thickness over one hundred per cent of the coated surface.
Paint Manufacturer’s product information and EP 10–3–1 must be strictly adhered to. This includes any specified temperatures, drying times and curing time requirements.

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