Reddish-brown staining appeared on pre-primed steel framing members soon after the application of the topcoat. Despite the primer manufacturer’s early hypothesis that surfactant leaching of the topcoat may have been the cause, field and laboratory investigations indicated that water-soluble corrosion products were being mobilized and deposited on the surface due to the presence of moisture.
In this article, engineer Stephen Foster and chemist Len Phelps explain how they investigated the staining of newly coated steel framing, including moisture testing and the laboratory examination.
This article originally appeared on materialsperformance.com.
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