Coatings
Paint by Number By Michael Crowley, Correspondent
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ant something different for your steel workboat? How about a marine paint whose effective lifetime is measured in decades and not a few years? Two to three decades, 20 to 30 years, is what Jotun says you get with the Jotacote Universal S120 epoxy. It will be introduced this December at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans. This is a solvent-free epoxy coating first unveiled four years ago in Europe and South Korea after 13 years of research and development. Jotun’s S120 epoxy can be used as a one-coat system, or as a primer for regular paints and antifoulants. The key to its longevity, adhesiveness and flexibility is its patented Covallox technology that uses covalent bonds instead of relying on hydrogen bonds to adhere the coating to steel plating. “This gives a double locking mechanism,” said Steven Feldman, Jotun’s director of business development, “where you still have hydrogen bonds
An offshore supply vessel is drydocked to receive Carboline coatings.
you now have covalent bonds, which is a chemical bond 10 times stronger than the typical hydrogen bonds.” With a coating dependent solely on hydrogen bonds when the coating is damaged down to the steel there will be undercutting and “the rust starts creeping under the coating and lifts it.” With the Jotacote Universal S120 epoxy there will be rust where the steel is exposed “but the creeping of the rust underneath the epoxy is stopped almost entirely from breaking the bond and going any further,” Feldman said. The next obvious advantage of a paint that lasts 20 years, said Feldman, is the labor, paint and money it saves. How much? “Quite a lot,” he said. Also, being solvent free, the Jotacote Universal S120 epoxy is safe for use in a shipyard by those applying the coating and “substantially reduces fire potential.” www.workboat.com • NOVEMBER 2021 • WorkBoat
Carboline Company
Longevity and flexibility are key with marine coatings.
