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103
Marine Coatings
Industry
Jack Hickey
International Paint Company

Bibliography .............................................................................. 103-2

Marine coatings are special-purpose coatings that are supplied to the shipbuilding and repair, offshore,
and pleasure craft markets. The products used are diverse and unique and are formulated for severe
climatic and immersion conditions.
As a result of these conditions, the coatings used must have maximum resistance properties to salt
spray, constant seawater, and in the case of tankers, a broad range of chemicals. For these reasons, a
substantial volume of products sold today are two-component epoxy primers, intermediate high builds,
and tank linings.
Above-the-waterline finishes are still predominantly single-package alkyds or acrylics on commercial
ships and offshore platforms. This is due to the subsequent ease of maintenance required. Similarly,
single-pack alkyds, urethane-alkyds, and silicone-alkyds are predominant in the pleasure craft market,
at least for hulls up to the 30- to 35-foot class.
Larger pleasure crafts are still painted with the single-pack finishes, but many such craft (yachts) are
coated today with two-part aliphatic polyurethanes to achieve the best in gloss and gloss retention,
abrasion resistance, and long-term durability.
The use of two-component products, whether applied to a ships tanks or a yachts topside, requires
more professional applicators to achieve the best result. Such applicators must be familiar with multiple
spray application equipment from the simple siphon cup to the sophisticated twin-feed heated airless spray.
Whether coating deep-sea ships, offshore platforms, or pleasure craft, one unique characteristic of the
marine coatings industry is the need to protect the underwater surfaces from the attachment and growth
of marine fouling organisms. These are living animals, algae or slime, that will adhere, colonize, and
grow rapidly if not controlled through the use of antifouling coatings.
Antifouling paints are unique to this industry and make up approximately 50% of the total volume
of coatings used. By their nature, in order to mitigate fouling attachment, antifouling paints contain
biocides, which are registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as pesticides under
the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
Subsequently, all antifouling paints must be both federally registered with the EPA and registered with
the state EPA in which they are sold.
This unique class of product is expensive to develop, test, and register and thus is expensive for the
customer. Most antifouling paints contain rosin (gum or wood) as part of the vehicle and a copper
compoundcuprous oxide being the most common as the biocide.
Some antifoulings are based on organotin-copolymer resins, which are biocidally active polymers along
with a copper compound. These are generally the best-in-class for complete fouling control.

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Coatings Technology Handbook, Third Edition

Unfortunately, the new ship construction industry in the United States is dramatically reduced compared to 20 to 25 years ago. Although there are still new construction shipyards, the volume of construction is primarily military with most commercial construction being done elsewhere.
Where ship construction is still active, zinc-rich primers, silicates, and epoxies are still prevalent for
steel protection from corrosion.
In the pleasure craft industry, the most prevalent construction material is fiber-reinforced polyester
(FRP) and polyester resin gelcoats.
In the shipbuilding/repair/offshore and pleasure craft market sectors, todays product technology is
not driven simply by performance requirements but jointly with regulatory demands. The Clean Air Act
and its amendments now control the volume of organic solvents (volatile organic compounds, VOCs)
emitted, the chemical composition of the emitted compound (hazardous air pollutants, HAPS; ozone
depleting substance, ODS), and airborne particulates.
These regulatory demands, coupled with the ever-increasing desire to minimize coating frequency, place
heavy technical emphasis on the marine coatings industry and will continue to do so in the near future.
The marine coatings industry represents less than 10% of the total volume of paints sold in North
America. Of this, the volume is split between commercial marine (primarily maintenance, military,
pleasure craft, and offshore). The trends for volume increase are overall fair, with the bulk of the increase
due to maintenance and repair.
There are several major suppliers that provide the majority of the marine coatings sold in North
America. These include Courtaulds Coatings, DeVoe & Reynolds, Ameron, Kopcoat, Hempel, and the
latest entry, Sherwin Williams.

Bibliography
N. I. Gaynes, Formulation of Organic Coatings. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1967.
C. R. Martens, Technology of Paints, Varnishes and Lacquers. Huntington, NY: Robert Krieger, 1968.
P. Nylen and E. Sunderland, Modern Surface Coatings. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1965.
D. H. Parker, Principles of Surface Coatings Technology. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1965.
P. Swaraj, Surface Coatings Science and Technology, 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley, 1996.
G. P. A. Turner, Introduction to Paint Chemistry and Principles of Paint Technology, 3rd ed. London:
Chapman & Hall, 1988.

2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC