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The marine industry is an industry that relies on millions of dollars of equipment to run its business. It is crucial to test the equipment and make sure they function efficiently and can handle the conditions that it will be exposed to while being used by the customer. The quality of materials used can be critical to life and death. It is of utmost importance to have them tested appropriately.
Metal Testing
Metal testing helps check the quality of metals and their properties. Such a test ensures that the metal used in ships or other machinery is strong enough to bear heavy loads and not too brittle to crack under different temperature conditions.
Some of the other properties of the metals used for this application:
- Strong impact resistance at sub-zero temperatures
- Good fracture toughness so that any crack that forms do not propagate extensively
The most common metals used in this are mild steel containing 0.15% to 0.23% Carbon and relatively high Manganese content. We keep Sulphur and Phosphorous content low to prevent affecting the welding properties or causing brittleness.
Welds
Welding Marine components is essential. The quality of the welding should conform to ASME, ISO, and other Marine specifications. Even a minor defect in welds can cause catastrophic failures over time. It is important to test the materials in aerospace industry.
Corrosion Testing
The metals used in the marine industry encounter a highly corrosive environment. The presence of Chlorides from the sea water accelerates the corrosion as well. It not only destroys the overall look of the ship and increases the cost of doing rework but also consumes time and human resources.
We choose least corrosive metals or get a proper protective coating.
Paint testing
Paint testing is essential in the shipyard to check the coating quality and standard adherence. It helps to determine whether the paints meet their specification requirements:
Paint Testing includes:
- Visual Inspection and Analysis (VIA) – This method involves a visual inspection of the coating system before it’s applied to the surface of a vessel. This test aims to ensure that there are no defects such as cracks or holes in the coating system that could lead to corrosion under normal conditions
- Pre-paint surface preparation tests – Surface preparation of the substrate is vital to ensure that the paint adheres thoroughly. If there are problems with the surface preparation, blisters can develop and lead to the chipping off of paint at a later stage.
- Density Functional Theory (DFT) – DFT uses Eddy Current techniques for measuring paint thickness as per specification
- Defects in Paint Application – When the Paint application does not follow specifications, pinholes develop (which are small holes). We can identify these while docking and apply them to recoat.