Paint & Coating Testing

A tremendous amount of financial loss is incurred every year as a result of premature failure of paints and coatings. The cost to repair such failures far outweighs the initial cost of painting due to the extreme cost and liability associated with excessive rigging and downtime to correct the problem.

That's why there's Matco. Matco's Coatings and Analytical Chemistry Division is there to resolve coating failures through techniques such as: infrared spectroscopy(FTIR); scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy; light microscopy; electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS); chromatography; thermal analysis and wet bench testing. Matco performs a wide array of standard ASTM and NACE test procedures. However, it's not our equipment that sets us apart from other laboratories, it's our expertise. Our NACE certified coating/corrosion professionals will look at the paint failure from both the paint formulation and corrosion/substrate point of views and know which technique will provide the most useful information given the failure and can therefore eliminate unnecessary testing costs. For example, gas chromatography is excellent at detecting solvents, but would be of little use in determining if an alkyd resin failed by specification. Another example is that only EIS and exposure tests can distinguish between storage related problems and paint application/formulation problems in white rust formation of painted galvanized steels. Traditional approaches cannot make the distinction.These insights alone could save you a lot of unnecessary effort and expense, simply by selecting the right test.

In our paint failure analysis investigations, you will be kept informed of results as they become available. Each failure analysis investigation will include a formal report containing the description of the defect, review of the application and expsoure conditions,laboratory analysis to check against specifications, on-site and analytical test results, factors influencing the paint failure, identification of failure mechanism and root cause, related problems, and corrective actions if requested. The most important thing for our client to do is fully describe the paint problem or failure, and let MATCO's experienced coating specialists decide which of these many techniques will provide the facts needed to solve it,and ensure that your new paint selection will provide adequate corrosion protection in your specific exposure application.