In a typical power plant, there are a million and one things that need to be watched, maintained, and repaired if necessary.
Most of us pay special attention to the major systems and their critical components. But one often-overlooked component is equipment coating systems.
The most attention many engineers and managers pay to coating systems is just to make sure they’re there. But coating systems are vitally important and shouldn’t be overlooked. They can mean the difference between a functioning component and one that, at worst, needs to be replaced – which costs your plant money that didn’t have to be spent.
Throw in the fact that many components are now engineered without exterior housings and coatings become even more important.
The Price of Neglect
What happens when you neglect your coating systems?
Things can corrode, degrade, and break. Maybe intake housing has corroded. Or maybe you have a leak in your cooling air apparatus. Sooner or later, you’ll experience problems because parts that are exposed to the elements will break if coatings fail.
You can pay a contractor to maintain coatings in addition to everything else in the plant, or you can pay a higher price for repair and replacement at some point. It becomes a bottom-line issue very quickly, and can cause unplanned downtime, the enemy of every plant manager. (You can recite the cost of each unplanned hour of downtime in your sleep, so you know how much is at stake.)
Taking Action
What is needed is a program dedicated to ensuring the integrity of coating systems. Your maintenance team, whether it’s in-house or via a contractor, needs to have coating systems as a part of their checklist. But merely having it on a list isn’t enough; they also need to know what to look for.
Know which components need a coating system. Determine how important this component is to the overall production process so you can create a maintenance schedule. And be proactive rather than reactive; don’t wait for coating systems to approach failure before you update or refresh them.
Staying ahead of the curve can pay dividends later through cost savings, while your competitors face unwanted and unforeseen expenses.