The coastal flood defence gates were coated with Applied Graphene Materials‘ new graphene enhanced Genable CX-based anti-corrosion primer.
A harsh environment anti-corrosion product, it is a further iteration of AGM’s product offerings for barrier performance and anti-corrosion application. “It represents the culmination of 18 months of in-depth testing and evaluation of anti-corrosion performance for both salt-spray and immersion in harsh test regimes,” says the firm.
This first customer application on a coastal facility is cited as a major milestone for AGM’s graphene-enhanced coatings systems, and the first of several planned applications of the system.
Adrian Potts, Chief Executive Officer of AGM said: “After many years of product development and rigorous testing of example graphene formulations for a range of increasingly harsh corrosion environments, it is extremely gratifying to see the successful application of these coatings in harsh coastal and sea spray conditions.
“Being based in the North East and seeing our products used locally is also testament to local innovation and the excellent platform of graphene R&D which AGM has developed in the region.”
Reducing maintenance
The EA has its sights set on being a carbon net zero organisation by 2030. To do that, said the agency’s John Abraham it “must innovate and engage with companies that are developing the materials and technologies of tomorrow”.
“One area the EA is looking at, is how to lengthen the maintenance intervals on our Flood Risk Management (FRM) Assets, which will reduce our carbon footprint in maintenance activities.
We have welcomed the opportunity, to engage with AGM, who have supplied us with their new advanced graphene primer, that was used in December 2021 on one of our FRM Assets. The asset, comprising of two flood barrier gates, two sluice gates, and various auxiliary components, all within the harsh coastal environment where we have to carry out frequent maintenance, due to its location. We have uniquely used this on half the FRM asset, with the other half in the standard offering we use, giving us a direct comparison which will give real world results in a relatively short period of time, due to its location.
