Industrial Nanotech, Inc. (Pink Sheets:INTK), an emerging global leader in nanotechnology based energy saving solutions, today announced that application of the Company’s patented Nansulate® energy saving protective coatings at one of the world’s largest food processing facilities is underway.

“Nansulate’s ability to reduce loss of heat energy from steam pipes and protect against corrosion, reduce surface temperatures for worker safety, and reduce condensation are valuable performance qualities for many food processing facilities,” states Francesca Crolley, VP of Business Development for Industrial Nanotech, Inc. “We have had a great deal of experience successfully solving these problems for food and beverage processing facilities around the world, including Holiday Snacks, Kraft Foods, and Grupo Modelo, makers of Corona beer. This relatively new project at one of the world’s largest facilities is a natural progression of that track record of success.”

Corrosion is the deterioration of essential properties in a metal, due to reactions with its surroundings. In the most common usage of the word, this means a loss of an electron of metal reacting with either water or oxygen. Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) is a localized corrosion occurring at the interface of a metal surface and the insulation on that surface. This can be a particularly severe form of corrosion because of the difficulty in detection due to the corrosion occurring beneath insulation. Inspections for corrosion under insulation are generally not completed regularly enough to eliminate this problem due to the cost of insulation removal and replacement and cost of labor. CUI can account for as much as 40 to 60 percent of a company’s piping maintenance costs. A study completed in 2001 by a research team of corrosion specialists in the USA reported the direct cost of corrosion under insulation to be $276 billion per year, with that number potentially doubling when indirect costs are also considered.

Nansulate® coatings have exceeded the rigorous corrosion test standard, GM9540P Accelerated Corrosion Test. The GM9540P is an advanced cyclic method originally developed by General Motors and now the corrosion test preferred by the US Navy and many industries. GM9540P is useful because it replicates many of the worst-case environments. The popularity of cyclic testing comes from the improved reliability of results that can be correlated with actual use. Testing was done simultaneously on a steel control (uncoated) panel and panels coated with Nansulate®. The results show that after 1 cycle of the test, the steel control (uncoated) panel failed with 100% red rust present, and that after 24 cycles of the test, the Nansulate coated panel passed with no red rust present. Passing 8 cycles is considered the standard for an anticorrosion coating. The testing was performed by Assured Testing Services, an independent accredited laboratory specializing in corrosion testing. Read the rest of this entry »