The Paint Consultant

Consultancy Services

Introduction

We can select a paint consultant with experience in virtually all aspects of surface coatings technology.

Our UK based consultants provide a confidential and independent service dedicated specifically to the paint and printing ink industries. They travel routinely throughout the world in order to give technical advice and opinions on all aspects of these materials and their optimum use.

We can provide consultants who are expert witnesses in matters of litigation and arbitration and we regard mediation as one of our specialities. A number of our consultants are based in our specialist laboratories which deal with :-

If your problem is concerned with one of the above, then the link will take you to the appropriate page. Please contact Peter Collins for further details.

In addition, we have a number of consultants who investigate problems that occur with paint, either when it is applied or at some stage during its service life. Our areas of expertise include:-

Civil Engineering Factory Finishing Marine Property Transport
Concrete Ceramic Commercial Shipping Commercial Buildings Air
Steel Composite Naval Vessels Historic Buildings Rail
  Glass Offshore Structures Private Dwellings Road
  Metal Pleasure Craft    
  Plastic      
  Wood      

 

Civil Engineering

This covers the use of paint on steel and concrete items that form part of the infrastructure. We have experience of paint failures on bridges, coastal defence and flood control structures, drainage and irrigation systems, power transmission lines, telecommunication towers and pipelines for oil, gas, water and sewage. Our consultants have been involved in prestige projects throughout the world and have unrivalled experience of the effect that climatic conditions, locally available materials and working practices can have on the quality of the finished job.

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Factory Finishing

A paint consultant can become involved in all stages of the production process including advising on the choice of coating systems, application equipment and working methods. Paint failures, when they do occur, are sometimes all too evident on the freshly painted item. In other cases the fault only becomes apparent during storage, transport or in service. The wide variety of paints, substrates and processes that are used in factory finishing makes this one of the more challenging areas for consultancy and the first objective of our consultant will be to obtain a full understanding of the process together with the nature and frequency of the defect. Factory-based consultancies we have undertaken include agricultural and construction equipment (ACE), beverage containers, building components, domestic appliances and utensils, electronic and telecommunications goods, freight containers, furniture, graphic instruments, machine tools, signs, sports equipment and toys.

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Marine

The marine environment arguably presents the most severe test of the protective properties of a paint system. It is also true that for both luxury pleasure craft and large ocean going vessels, paint failures often involve a significant financial loss. Our consultants are accustomed to travelling at short notice to ports throughout the world in order to rendevous with vessels and carry out their investigations. Problems that we have investigated include the reasons for premature paint failure and responsibility for coatings damaged by or causing contamination of cargo. We also provide a valued serviced aimed at preventing problems before they arise and we are happy to give advice regarding specifications for coating systems used on offshore structures and marine craft of all size. Our consultants are able to monitor large painting projects through all their stages in order to check that the specification is being adhered to. Over the years we have dealt with most of the major suppliers of marine paints and some of the worlds largest shipyards and navies.

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Property

Sadly, most peoples first experience of paint failure is in their own home and their disappointment is felt even more keenly if a paint contractor is involved and large sums of money have changed hands. In our experience most disputes concerning paint failures on property relate to external finishes on wood and masonry and the vast majority of failures are due to imperfect surface preparation and/or painting during adverse weather conditions. Although we always recommend that one of our consultants should visit the site, we recognise that in the case of individual householders this can rarely be justified economically. In these circumstances we can examine paint flakes, supplied by the householder, in our analytical laboratory. Please discuss the matter with Peter Collins before submitting any flakes.

Our consultants may well work in conjunction with our analytical laboratory when investigating the painting of historic buildings since the identification and dating of old paintwork is important in cases where modern paint is required to match. The use of modern paints on historic buildings can give rise to problems and our consultants are especially aware of the need to avoid making any irreversible changes to these structures. The overcoating of fine plaster work with modern emulsion paint is but one of many examples where the appearance of the object can be irrevocably compromised.

Commercial buildings tend to give rise to complex consultancies, partly due the number of organisations that become involved in major painting projects and partly because of the range of paint types that are used on these structures. Our consultants have experience of paint failures of a wide variety of internal and external coatings including paints used on structural steelwork and cladding materials. They also encounter problems with coatings which are intended to perform a function over and above that of decorating/protecting the structure. Heat reflecting coatings, non-slip flooring and anti-graffiti systems are examples of functional coatings that we have dealt with.

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Transport

Our consultancy work in this area is divided between air, road and rail and further sub-divided between the problems of private individuals and large companies. The majority of work that we carry out for members of the public concerns problems with vehicle refinishing. In some cases the quality of a re-spray job is questioned as soon as the vehicle is returned to the customer while in other cases the defect only becomes apparent weeks or months later. Depending on the nature of the problem, our consultant may call upon the services of our analytical, colour, or testing laboratories to aid in the investigation. The overall aim in such cases is to establish the cause of the defect and to assign responsibility.

Aircraft, motor vehicles and railway rolling stock are manufactured by a small number of large companies which in turn are supplied with paint by a few specialist firms. In such a situation it is not surprising that the paint suppliers provide a high level of technical support to their customers including the investigation of problems that arise in production or in service. We tend to get involved when there is a perceived need by one of the parties involved for an independent investigation of the problem. One or more of the companies involved may well be Members of our Association but they realise if we do undertake the consultancy then we will regard ourselves as free to give an unbiased opinion. The technical expertise of the manufacturers coupled with the high level of specialist support from the paint suppliers means that paint failures are relatively uncommon. However, when they do occur, the causes tend to be complex and require very experienced consultancy input in order to identify them. Over the years the problems that we have investigated have been shown to be caused by, among other things, low-level contamination of substrates by silicones, intermittent failures of pre-treatment bath controls and microbial contamination of electro-deposition coatings.

 

Contact Peter Collins for further details.

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