Painting over Flash Rust Project

Issue

Most U.S. Navy preservation specifications currently in use require surface preparation of steel substrates to white metal or near-white metal.

• Dehumidification/ventilation equipment and/or environmental enclosures are often required to prevent flash rust formation on the substrate before the first application of primer. 
• Production processes are delayed and expensive. 
• Those specifications that do allow painting over some degree of flash rust (associated with waterjet cleaning) do not produce consistent results because current standards intended to assess the amount of flash rust on a surface are ambiguous and subjective.

Discussion

The NST Center will review current standards and efforts to quantify flash rust and then assess current technologies providing accurate and consistent measurements of flash rust on a steel surface in a shipyard environment and make a recommendation to NAVSEA.  

Current Status

Reviewing current technologies to measure the amount of flash rust on steel substrates using current standards and considerations such as adhesion and wet ability.