South Africa’s market leader in surface coating technology, Thermaspray’s new range of wear and corrosion resistant polymeric coatings protect components in extremely harsh environments, delivering cost and time saving benefits to customers through extended component life and enhanced production.

“These highly flexible polymer coating systems are extremely resistant to abrasive wear, corrosion as well as thermal degradation,” explains Thermaspray’s Metallurgical Engineer, Shaik Hoosain. “This is all to one purpose namely, to ensure that our customers have the best materials to protect their plant and equipment for the long term, reducing downtime and lowering maintenance costs.”

This range of coatings from Thermaspray is especially effective in corrosive environments where application can extend component life significantly compared to the uncoated part. The coatings are resistant to a wide variety of chemicals ranging from various acids to bases, salts and organic materials. Hoosain adds that alongside corrosion resistance, these coatings can also provide abrasion and erosion resistance.

“A recent trial done for a customer experiencing a significant amount of wear, erosion, and corrosion in its pump components are one of many success stories,” continues Hoosain.

The pump operates in a corrosive medium containing various salts, abrasive particles, a pH ranging from 4-8 and a temperature of 60˚C. The pump is made from 316 stainless steel and currently only lasts for two weeks. “The end plate and volute casing respectively, after approximately two weeks of use, showed signs of substantial corrosion, wear and erosion. The customer requested Thermaspray to look into the possible refurbishment of the components and the possibility of extending the two week life significantly.”

“After applying our new range of coatings the components were refurbished, machined and ground to the correct sizes for assembly. The coating chosen and applied is corrosion, abrasion, and erosion resistant. We are pleased to report that the pump is currently running for the last seven months without any issues,” concludes Hoosain.

Thermaspray, in a joint venture with Cape Town-based Surcotec, offers an extensive portfolio of engineering and thermal spray coating solutions that extend component life cycles to assist OEM and end-user clients across southern Africa in reducing costs and increasing production. The companies’ world-class quality wear- and corrosion-resistant thermal spray coatings, Plasma Transferred Arc cladding and Polymer coatings are augmented by a host of specialised allied services.