Painted surfaces. There are probably quite a few to be found on your industrial site. Keeping them looking like they’ve been freshly painted requires frequent checking and touching up. Discover how to optimise your approach and make paint maintenance easier and more efficient.
Making sure your plant and infrastructure is neatly painted in all the right colours is so much more than an aesthetic requirement. Numerous parts of the indoor and outdoor infrastructure have to be painted in a specific colour to ensure smooth operation or on-site safety. Getting everything painted in the first place is one thing. Touching up and maintaining every painted surface to a high standard is a continuous challenge that every maintenance manager has to deal with, fighting wear and tear, corrosion and the elements!
Smarten up your maintenance paint plan
A great deal of your maintenance plan focuses on the upkeeping of machinery and process equipement, as this is key to keeping the plant running. But don’t forget that well-maintained paintwork also helps to keep the place safe and operational. Not every area, piece of machinery or pipeline on site is equally vulnerable or critical when it comes to keeping paint in good shape, so it pays to have critical and sensitive areas checked more often than others to increase safety and enable smooth operations. On top of that, you also save time and money, as it’s easier to touch up minor damage than to fix heavily affected areas that are beyond quick repair.
Choose easy-to-apply and durable products
Frequent maintenance checks reduce the number of problematic paint areas, as you’ll detect damage, corrosion and worn-out patches at an earlier stage. When you fix them with high-quality products, they stay in shape for longer. Win-win! But what qualities should you look for in a touch-up paint product?
- Easy-to-apply paint, with no dripping or spilling
Good quality spray cans with an ergonomic grip and top quality nozzles come in very handy for touch-up jobs. Use them for a quick direct application on any surface, without worrying about dripping or running. When painting from cans, look into good quality brands that guarantee no drips or runs.
- Optimal hiding power
Not all paints offer the same opacity. Check out the brands that guarantee the greatest opacity, even after one layer of spray paint, as this saves you time and money.
- Fast drying paint
When you need to prime or recoat, you want the shortest drying times possible, particularly when working in difficult weather or a delicate process situation, or when operational timeframes are working against you.
- Sustainable quality
You need durable colours and gloss finishes that last as long as possible without chipping, cracking or peeling. Consider an eco-friendly option if available.
- Readily available extensive range of colours
You need touch-ups to be done in a specific colour, and not just a shade that resembles the one you have. So choose a brand that can offer a wide range of standard, machine, safety and identification colours, as well as a tailor-made colour service on top. That way you have a solution for any colour on site.
- Keep in mind what substrate is involved
Depending on the substrate you need to paint, your paint options might vary. Some products can be used on a multitude of substrates, which makes it easier to manage stocks. Nevertheless, specific circumstances like extreme temperatures or extreme corrosion sensitivity might require you to invest in specific paints to tackle these challenges.
Plan well and use top quality materials for smoother paint maintenance
Look into optimising your maintenance plan and stay ahead of major damages and vulnerable paint spots in your plant. Frequent checks in critical areas will save a lot of time and money while preventing operational or safety issues. When executing touch-ups, don’t settle for inferior products that don’t solve the issue and don’t last very long, but choose easy-to-apply products that are applied in no time and last for years.
