From industrial and commercial packaging to kitchen and bathroom tissues to the papers used to print your favorite reads, the products of the pulp and paper industry have various applications. In 2020, the global market value of the industry is estimated to be $349.18 billion, and it’s projected to grow to $370.12 billion in 2028. But factory owners and operators need to combat papermill corrosion for quality outputs to be manufactured.
In the US and beyond, industry players experience corrosion on varying scales and degrees. It’s an issue that pollutes pulp and paper and damages the very equipment and machinery used to produce these commodities. It can even affect the health and safety of workers.
What Is Papermill Corrosion?
Corrosion is the deterioration of metals due to chemical reactions that take place on their surfaces. It can be caused by several factors, including water, moisture, temperature, pH level, impurities present inside a material, and corrosive ionic species (e.g. Hydrogen peroxide found in bleaching chemicals).
Paper mill corrosion is simply corrosion that happens in the machinery and equipment within a pulp and paper mill facility. It can occur especially in critical areas such as the forming and pressing sections, machine screens, headboxes, and pipings.
In the pulp and paper industry, these are the most common forms of corrosion:
* Uniform corrosion (occurs when a metal uniformly gets corroded)
* Galvanic corrosion (occurs when dissimilar metals get immersed in a conductive solution, causing them to be electrically connected; the one remains protected while the other metal gets corroded)
* Crevice corrosion (corrosion that takes place in crevices, e.g. Edges of bolts and nuts)
* Pitting (a kind of corrosion that forms a cavity in a small area)
* Intergranular corrosion (in this type of corrosion, it’s not the metal’s surface itself that gets corroded by its crystallites. It’s a more localized form of corrosion)
* Erosion corrosion (as its name implies, this is a form of corrosion that happens alongside an erosion or rapid flow of a corrosive fluid)
* Selective leaching (a form of corrosion that causes the removal of an element from the metal)
* Microbiologically influenced corrosion (a form of corrosion induced by microbial activities)
* Stress-corrosion cracking (occurs when a metal receives excessive tensile stress)
How Do You Prevent It?
Industrial coatings are your first line of defense against paper mill corrosion. These coatings are engineered to insulate the various surfaces of your paper mill facility and provide a durable barrier against corrosive elements.
Mascoat, a leading manufacturer of such coatings, offers an array of products that can specifically help paper industry players. For instance, they have the Mascoat Industrial-DTI, a multi-purpose coating that acts as a thermal barrier and a protective layer against corrosion and corrosion under insulation (CUI).
Their papermill corrosion solutions have benefitted numerous paper manufacturers. For example, using their Industrial-DTI, they could coat one company’s tanks, prevent the often unnoticed CUI, and protect the workers from getting their skin burned due to high tank surface temperature. Another client had issues because a portion of their facility is exposed to the weather. If the water enters their system, it can cause corrosion risks. Mascoat’s industrial coatings were also used to prevent that from happening.
