Hybrid nanocomposite fusion bonded epoxy coating system based on novel fillers for demanding industrial applications

The present economic climate has fuelled the need for efficient, cost effective and environment friendly systems. Each year, the maintenance and reliability functions of the oil and gas, power generation and manufacturing sectors are tasked with the objectives of improving key performance indicators such as overall equipment efficiency and mean time between repairs which translate to huge cost savings. According to the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE), a US organization devoted to advancing the corrosion profession, the annual cost of corrosion and wear run into several trillions of dollars. While various methods of mitigating the effects of wear and corrosion exist, the use of protective coatings is an obvious choice owing to their relative ease of application and cost effectiveness. Coatings themselves are available in a wide variety of generics and specification bodies often seek ways to reduce the overall impact of their recommendations on the maintenance budget by using systems that can simultaneously combat wear and corrosion. Owing to their exceptional resistance to a range of corrosive media and wear resistance properties, epoxy coatings occupy a prominent place in any coating selection handbook. However, and despite their excellent abrasion and wear resistance properties, the application of pristine epoxy coatings in demanding tribological settings - between sliding components of machines, such as journal bearings for instance - are limited by their low load bearing ability coupled with poor thermal stability. Over the past several decades, researchers in both the academia and industry have invested considerable amount of time and efforts on enhancing the properties of the pristine liquid based epoxy matrix using a combination of several types of micro/nano sized fillers to produce hybrid nanocomposites. However, very few studies have been conducted to reinforce powder based epoxy matrix which is also referred to as fusion based epoxy (FBE) which is a more viable solution for industrial applications due to the ease of coating procedures involved. An initial literature review has revealed significant gaps in tribological characterization of nanocomposite fusion bonded epoxy (FBE) coating systems. Additionally, no studies so far have evaluated the tribological properties of hybrid nanocomposite FBE coating systems using specifically, Titania (TiO2) and Graphene oxide (GO) or Carbon nano-tube (CNT) reinforcements which is the focus of the proposed study.