COATINGS
Guy Williams, director and chief operating officer of Impreglon UK Ltd, explains how using the latest coating technology is helping to improve performance.
C
oating technology, like the railway industry, has its
roots in the past but is constantly being updated and improved to take into account new develop- ments in associated markets.
Impreglon UK Ltd is a specialist coating applicator with a 25-year history, yet can offer coating sys- tems suitable for the 21st century. For example: robust metal coat- ings that offer corrosion resistance for 15 to 50 years; or dry lubrica- tion coatings with performance to match that of the fast fighter air- craft that use them.
Impreglon UK is a part of the in- ternational Impreglon Group. The Group has 21 facilities in ten coun- tries across three continents and is probably the largest coating appli- cator in the world. All coatings for the UK and the Republic of Ireland are applied in the purpose-built
Tamworth plant.
Out of the huge Impreglon coating range, there are three family types of interest to the railway industry.
First, corrosion resistant coatings.
Not paint, but sprayed metals such as zinc and aluminium. Although soft metals, once sprayed onto a steel surface they give the steel ca- thodic protection.
This means that if the coating is
damaged (which is surprisingly difficult to do, as the coatings are quite resilient) the metal coating will corrode in preference to the steel. Tests carried out by one of the aluminium raw material man- ufacturers demonstrated a coating lifespan of 15 to 50 years.
Second, dry lubrication coatings. These do as they suggest and can be a single polymer type, such as PTFE, or can be mixtures, such as PTFE and graphite. All are fully cured and bonded to the substrate.
A third coating type is that devel- oped for a specific application. All the Virgin Intercity trains and the Midland Mainline trains make use of a unique Impreglon coating.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
T: 01827 871400 E:
guy@impreglon.co.uk W:
www.impreglon.co.uk
72 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 12
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