Pipeline Coating

Pipeline coating is the external barrier - typically fusion-bonded epoxy, polyethylene, or coal-tar enamel depending on the pipeline’s age - applied to steel pipe to physically separate it from the surrounding soil and prevent the electrochemical contact that causes external corrosion. Coating and cathodic protection work as a paired system: the coating handles the vast majority of the surface area, while CP protects the much smaller area exposed at coating defects, or holidays. Coating degrades with age, soil stress, and installation damage, and identifying where coating has failed - well before a leak develops - is one of the central goals of external corrosion surveys.