Founded in 1994, the Association for the Certification and Qualification of Anticorrosive Paint aims to validate the key elements contributing to corrosion protection by liquid paint and, since 2012, one or two powder coating ranges.
Among these, factors such as the quality of the products and personnel qualification of application personnel, have been evaluated.
The TMN Industries Group regularly sends a number of its liquid paint application personnel for training in order to obtain or renew their ACQPA certification.
The ACQPA approach enables the performances of the paint systems to be clearly defined, particularly on the basis of the high durability class according to the standard ISO 12944, as well as the definition of the different environments.
- Indoor environments:
Four types are defined for rooms according to their humidity (at average temperature during the cold season). A fifth condition reserved for aggressive environments I1, I2, I3, I4, I5.
- Direct outdoor environments:
The boundary between internal environments and the outdoor atmosphere is the water and air tightness plane
E 11 Rural unpolluted atmosphere
E 12 Normal urban or industrial atmosphere
E 13 Severe urban or industrial atmosphere
E 14 Marine atmosphere: 10 to 20 km from the coast
E 15 Marine atmosphere: 3 to 10 km from the coast
E 16 Marine coastal atmosphere
E 17 Normal mixed atmosphere
E 18 Severe combined Atmosphere
E 19 Aggressive atmosphere
E 21 to E 29 Protected and ventilated outdoor atmospheres
- Choice of protection:
Definition of durability:
Durability is not a "warranty period." It is a technical concept that can help the client establish a maintenance programme, whereas the warranty period is a legal concept that is the subject of specific provisions in the administrative part of a contract. The warranty period is usually shorter than the durability and there is no rule correlating these two periods.
Three classes of durability have been established:
- Limited durability (L) 2 to 5 years
- Average durability (M) 5 to 15 years
- High durability (H) greater than 15 years
- Paint systems:
Taking into account the different elements described in the above paragraphs, and applying certification ranges, an appropriate response can be given for each site:
- C3 Paint system for air atmosphere of average corrosivity
- C4 Paint system for air atmosphere of high corrosivity
- My C5 Paint system for atmosphere of "very high" corrosivity Marine
ACQPA certified paint systems are listed in a compendium in the form of sheets indicating the different suppliers and all versions of the protection systems C3, C4, C5 Ma C5 Mn Im2, with substrates and possible preparations for Electroplating, Metal Plating, Shot Blasting . Certified ranges are provided for the maintenance work.
