A Video Message from HoldTight's Ken Rossy
A Standard You should Know:
SSPC Guide 15
If you have spent much time in the coatings industry, you know how many problems surface salts can cause for coatings. Specifically, soluble salts remaining on the substrate when coatings are applied over them can cause blistering, delamination, and other adhesion problems.
There are many test methods available and making sense of them can be dizzying. Conductivity? All salts? Ion specific? i.e. Chlorides? Sulfates? Nitrates? And then, should you use an adhesive patch? a sleeve? a swab? a magnetic patch? Kitagawa tube, quantab strip? an electronic sensor sensor?
A standard that can help you make sense of the range of test methods and best practices for using them is SSPC Guide 15. A 17-page PDF is available for free on the SSPC website to members. It does not answer all questions – such as whether to test for all salts (conductivity) as opposed to specific ions to test for, but provides all of the alternatives.
At HoldTight, we are passionate about giving our customers the confidence they have achieved the best in surface preparation. This is why we not only supply a line of environmentally friendly salt removing chemicals, but also testing tools.
Get in touch with us and set up an appointment with someone from our team if you’d like to find out more about salt testing. We can also put you in touch with one of our industry-leading distributors.
DISTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT
Strand's Industrial Coatings
Whether you are an end user or distributor of Holdtight, there is a universal sentiment.
“You know the difference once you see it!”
This month we have a quick Q&A with Carter Strand. President of Strand’s Industrial Coatings in Iowa.
He is a longtime partner and has great insights to share.
Carter Strand
How did you first come to get involved with HoldTight? What was the reason that you chose us?
One of my mentors in the industrial coatings industry, Bill Hansen, told me about Holdtight 102 and thought it would fit in well for our contractors in the tank coatings business. After researching different methods of salts removal, the choice was clear. I went with Holdtight 102.
How does HoldTight help your company achieve its goals?
Our mission is to provide our customers with the “Best in Class” of each product category. For salts removal, I can’t meet that criteria without Holdtight 102.
Why would you recommend HoldTight to another distributor?
I wouldn’t. Unless they want the best.
Can you recall an “A – Ha” moment when you first saw the difference that the use of HoldTight made on a project?
In addition to our industrial coatings distribution business, I also work as an independent coatings inspector. About 15 years ago, I was on a barge blast and recoat job with the Coast Guard during a very hot and humid summer on the Mississippi River. Holdtight 102 was specified by the US Government. The clean blast held overnight and the salts testing requirements were achieved. As an inspector, I was very happy to see that the specifications were met with the use of an innovative product. Holdtight 102 kept the project on schedule, kept the contractor under budget, and kept the inspector happy.
How did your business deal with COVID-19 and any lessons learned?
Every business needs to continually adapt to changing conditions. COVID-19 required immediate changes. My takeaway from COVID-19 has been that we must embrace change daily. Once COVID-19 is over, that change-friendly mentality will need to remain within our organization or we’ll risk becoming obsolete. We’ve all realized that resisting change is a death sentence, while embracing change is an golden opportunity.