Simplifying marine coatings maintenance

Barge paint / marine coating maintenance

Keeping a barge in shape to run rivers is no easy task. During its life of ferrying goods up and down waterways, a barge is constantly encountering driftwood and other debris in the water. Its hull regularly scrapes the river bottom. It’s also guaranteed to spend a large amount of time moored to other barges, where a rising and falling wake leads to a lot of bumping and raking for it and its neighbors.

On its interior, the barge is subjected to regular loading and unloading of cargo which can cause impact damage in the case of dry goods, or pitting and rusting in the case of corrosion caused by liquids. On top of all that, tugboats are expected to support the living needs of a crew that spends long stints aboard while working the river.

Given the constant motion of both cargo and crew, it’s no surprise that regularly scheduled maintenance is a critical part of extending the service life of a vessel. At regular intervals, key components such as engines, pumps and generators need to be checked to make sure they’re working properly. The marine coatings that protect barges and tugboats are no exception.

Marine coating maintenance conundrum

When it comes to tracking the life cycle of each vessel’s coating system, there’s a lot to keep in mind:

  • Which areas of the barge or tugboat were last painted?
  • What type of marine coating was used on the area?
  • Was the deck painted with a non-skid coating?
  • What sort of chemical resistance was required of the coatings used to line the barge’s storage tanks?
  • Have potable water tanks been lined properly?
  • Is the marine coating deep enough into its service life that it needs to be replaced before the asset is put back into service?

Now imagine you’re in charge of this routine for a fleet of barges that numbers upwards of 100. A task that required diligent work for one barge is an enormous logistical burden for an entire fleet.

Luckily, there are ways individuals in charge of marine coatings can make things easier on themselves. It’s possible to get together with a coatings manufacturer to design a coating that perfectly coincides with the other facets of a barge’s maintenance schedule. Say a barge is dry-docked periodically for scheduled maintenance, a coating can be designed with exactly that intended service life. This way, a given maintenance task can also serve as a reminder that a coating’s service life is up.

US Coatings can also provide total asset analysis tracking along with its coatings. This enables us to keep tabs on every aspect of your marine coatings maintenance schedule. We can remind you when coatings were applied, what area they were applied to, the product specifications and alert you when a coating is nearing the end of its service life, for every vessel in your fleet. With digital record keeping of the fleet’s coatings maintenance schedule, it’s possible to look up when work was last done on a vessel and when it’s next scheduled to receive service. It’s our way of simplifying the way you do marine coatings maintenance.

Let’s get started

For a consultation on simplifying you marine coatings maintenance operation, get in touch with us today. We can talk coatings specifications, tracking your coatings and formulating a budget so your marine coatings are never the cause of future surprises.

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