The quality and usefullife of anti-corrosion painting is determined by severalfactors.

Thepretreatment
and the protection of the pretreatedsurfaces againstmoisture are the most important factors.
Surfaceswhich havebeen blasted or treated in a correspondingmanner are completely unprotected against
corrosion attack and must not be subjected to excessivehumidity nor to the risk of condensation.
The rate of corrosion attack is considerableabovea certain valueof the relative humidity - the criticaI
humidity. But below the critica I humidity the rate is negligible. The critical humidity is about 60%,
but 50% should not be exceededin practice.
In order to carry out anti-corrosion painting, it is necessary
to know about the factors which affect and determine the
ambient humidity, so that this may be checked. When unsaturated air is cooled or its moisture content is increased,
ils relative humidity is increased and may continue to increase until the air becomes saturated and water vapour
begins to form. The air has then reached its dew point. In
other words, the relative humidity adjacent to a pretreated
surface is determined by the moisture content of the air
and the air temperature at the surface.

Indoor painting
In heated, weil ventilated areas,there is generally sufficientIy little ambient moisture for anti-corrosion painting in cold
weather. During the cold winter months, the relative humidity indoors may even be very low.
However, the temperature lag of the material to be painted
must also be considered. Material which is taken into heated,
but undried premises,is usually so cold that moisture condenseson the surface.
During the warm part of the year, the indoor ambient moisture is relatively unsuitable for anti-corrosion painting.
The indoor ambient moisture may be alternately better or
worse than the outdoor environment, depending on the design of the building, its location and other factors. However,
the building provides protection against rain and when it has
thermal insulation, it is protected against the daily variations
in temperature, so that the condensation of moisture on materials may be avoided.
If an attempt is made to improve the ambient moisture during the summer by heating the indoor air, the heating producesan unacceptably high working temperature. In the
sameway, when heating in winter, the risk of a temperature
lag on materials of large massmust be considered.
Outdoor painting
The conditions tor carrying out correct outdoor anti-corrosion painting are very unsuitable. The average relative humidity is sufficiently low to provide protection against corrosion only in the afternoons during the summer months.
Moreover, the daily variations of the air temperature and
the temperature lag of steel structures must be considered.
The critical humidity is easily exceededand the dew point
of the air is aften reachedduring the night, resulting in condensation on steel surfaces.Pretreatment and painting cannot.be started until the surfaceshave dried, and must be
completed so that the paint can dry before condensation
occurs again.
Of course, anti-corrosion painting cannot be carried out
while it is raining, nor immediately after rain.
Certain anti-coorosion paints dry slowly at low temperatures

and +5 C to +15C is of ten stipulated as the lowest temperature for painting. Theseconditions further limit the
possibilities of carrying out correct anti-corrosion painting
outdoors.
Adapting the ambient moisture
It is possible to achieve a low relative humidity by heating
or dehumidifying the air. In adapting the ambient moisture
tor anti-corrosion painting, the moisture content of the air
or the absolute humidity is of importance, but it is the relative humidity adjacent to steel surfaceswhich dictates
whether the moisture in the environment is damagingor
not.
The important difference between heating air and dehumidifying it is that while the moisture content and dew point
remain unchangedduring heating, the moisture content and
the dew point are reduced by dehumidification (F jg. 1).

This difference in principle is important as regardsthe risk

of temperature lag of the materials. When the indoor temperature is heated, it may take a long time for the temperature of the materials to reach th at of the air, and when painting outdoor steel structures of large mass,it is practically
impossible to raisethe temperature of the materials sufficiently.

Indoors it is generally easy to achieve a low relative humidity adjacent to steel surfaces by dehumidification,
irrespective of the temperature of the materials. Outdoors the desired moisture in the environment mayalso be achieved by
dehumidification, where it is praticable to erect a covering
around the object to be painted. The covering may be arranged in one of many different ways. A steel scaffold or wooden framework cl ad in heavy plastic - possibly reinforced

plastic- mayoften be sufficient.The cover neednot be ab-

solutely tight, as the demand tor good ventilation must be

satisfied. During the cold part of the year, dehumidifying
is combined with heating to speed up the drying rate of the

paint andto achievean acceptableworkingtemperature. In

this context, it should be pointed out that building dryers

Economy
In practice it has been found that dehumidifying is conjunction with anti-corrosion painting is clearly profitable. The
cast of dehumidifying is only approx. 4% of the total treatment cast of corrosion-preventive painting a ship's tanks.
Moreover, dehumidifying is of ten a prerequisite tor the correct execution of anti-corrosion painting. This is the casein
the painting or surface treatment of large structures outdoors,
tor instance. The technical consequencesof attcmpting to
achievethe desired moisture in the environment under these
circumstancesby heating havealready been described. The
following example illustrates this and at the sametime shows
the difference in energy casts between heating and dehumidifying tor the anti-corrosion painting of a storage tank.

arenot capableof drying, but only of heatingthe air. so

that they only operate as air heaters.

Fig. 2 showsa mobile dehumidifier tor different types of

outdoor painting. Examples of applications include the
painting of ships' tanks and storage tanks, bath above and
below ground. Dehumidifiers are also used during painting
in rock caverns,pump stations, waterworks and during the
finishing of concrete surfaces in, tor example, water towers.
It is particularly easyto arrangedehumidification when painting various types of container indoors, Fig. 3 shows the
principle tor dehumidification while corrosion-prevention
painting a storage tank. The moist outdoor air is drawn into
the unit and dried. The air is passedthrough a heater, where
r'" is heated if necessary.
rhe dried air which may be heated is led into the storage
tank through flexible ducts. The air leavesthe storagetank
through valvesor manholes.
As shown in the figure, the air may be filtered and recirculated, but is usually blown out of the tank into the air using
an exhaust fan.
The necessaryventilation and the desired valuestor the relative humidity and the temperature are taken into account
wh en selectingthe dehumidifier and the heater.
The air treatment is carried out during the various phasesof
anti-corrosion painting; the drying of the tank, blasting,
cleaning, painting and drying of the paint.
Moisture control
Both the ambient temperature and the temperature of the
steel surface should be measuredduring the control of the
ambient moisture.lt may be assumedthat the moisture content is the samenear the surface and in the surrounding air,
sa that it is possible to read off the relative humidity of the
surfacein the IX-DIAGRAM.
Of course it is important to determine the lowest temperature of the steel structure to be painted. In doubtful cases,
the surface temperature should be checked at severallocations. Variations in the outdoor temperature and humidity
must be observed, if the dehumidifying and heating are
manually regulated.

Example:
The uninsulated storagetank is, in
Volume
Area exposed to ambient a!r
Ambient temperature
Relative humidity of ambient air.
Ventilation demand

principle, like that in Fig. 3.

= 2000 m3
= 720 m2
= 12,5 C
= 80%

= 5000 m3/h

The temperature in the tank must be raised to 20 C to

lower the relative humidity In the tank to 50%. The temperature of the steel will then be 15.3C and the relative humidity at the steel surface will then be 65%. The temperature
of the steel must be further raisedas it is the humidity at the
steel surface which is of importance. It will be found that
the air temperature must be raised to 32.5 Cso th at temperature of the steel will be 20C and the humidity 50%.
To achievethis increasein temperature requires a hot-air
unit with a heating capacity of 120 kW. At an energy cast
of 0.1 SKr/kWh, this will cast 12 SKr/hour.
The desired humidity in the tank may be achieved using a
dehumidifier of 25 kW output. At the sameenergy price,
the cast of energy will then be 2.5 SKr/hour.
The calculation does not include the heat lost through the
bottom of the tank. The heating demand may be much
higher in' reality, depending on how th~foundations for the
tank are designed.Contact between the bottom of the tank
and the foundations or the ground, gives rise to local heat
losses,which mean that the temperature of the steel at the
bottom of the tank will be lower and the relative humidity
higher there than in other parts of the tank.
A certain heating effect is also generatedduring dehumidification, becausethe drying processreleasesenergy in the
treated air. The heating effect may amount to 75% of the
energy consumption of the plant. It is therefore possible in
many casesto achievethe temperature required without the
provision of a separateheater.