Treatment Prevents Corrosion in Steel and Concrete Structures

Tuesday, January 01 2008

This new technology is currently in use at Kennedy, but NASA also saw the immediate benefits that could be gained by transferring this technology to the private sector, where decay and corrosion of concrete structures costs billions of dollars per year.

Partnership

Ten years after its initial partnership, Surtreat has partnered with NASA again by licensing the new liquid galvanic coating technology and has already put it to use. Its first test, in early 2007, was completed at the U.S. Army Naha Port, in Okinawa, Japan, a coastal facility built during the Korean War and subject to much of the same environmental stressors as those found at Kennedy.

Product Outcome

The NASA-developed coating may be used to prevent corrosion of steel in concrete in several applications, including highway and bridge infrastructures, piers and docks, concrete balconies and ceilings, parking garages, cooling towers, and pipelines, to name just a few.

Surtreat is the ideal partner to bring this technology to the public, as the company has a proven record of providing full-service, innovative, and technical solutions for the restoration and prevention of deterioration and corrosion in steel-reinforced concrete structures. Their Total Performance System provides diagnostic testing and site analysis to identify the scope of problems for each project, manufactures and prescribes site-specific solutions, controls material application, and verifies performance through follow-up testing and analysis.

The coating lasts 10 years or more, reducing maintenance costs over the lifetime of the structure; and testing has proven that the treatment yields reductions in rebar corrosion potential, water penetration, chemical reactivity, and water-soluble chloride, while generating increases in hardness, flexural strength, and pH levels. The treatment also provides resistance to chloride penetration and problems associated with freezing and thawing of the porous structures.

Surtreat treatments are environmentally friendly, and the company focuses on preventing and minimizing adverse environmental impacts by identifying and controlling potential environmental risks in advance. The solutions used are water-soluble and environmentally safe, and in testing have shown no effect on the turbidity, pH, or dissolved oxygen content levels in water. Surtreat’s formulations bond inorganic compounds to structures, where they become part of the steel and concrete matrix indefinitely. It leaves no residues, coatings, or materials that could potentially harm humans, animals, fish, or the environment.

Total Performance System™ is a trademark of Surtreat International.