Forensic analysis of weathered organic coatings to understand mechanisms of degradation

塔塔钢铁欧洲公司(TSE)是欧洲第二大预涂漆钢生产商。为了保持这一地位，该组织正在不断努力改善目前的产品范围，要么是通过为建筑业开发同类最好的涂料，要么是通过改进服务或通过增加功能。由于塔塔的优质涂层产品可以提供长达40年的免维护保修，因此必须充分了解不同气候条件下的性能，以支持产品保证，即为新市场和新气候提供新的颜色范围，并为下一代涂钢涂层开发新产品。要实现这一点，必须在这些不同的环境中很好地理解退化和故障的模式。一旦确定了这些因素，将开发以非破坏性方式评估涂层性能的技术，从而建立新的产品。研究工程师将：-为产品开发提供有关涂层性能、颜色性能和相关产品保修期的数据和建议。-调查通过外部或加速测试而退化的材料。其中许多样品至少暴露了5年。-与塔塔钢铁颜色公司的主要涂料系统合作，并使用紫外线、衰减全反射、傅里叶变换红外和拉曼光谱等技术，确定有机涂层退化和侵蚀的机制和速率。-通过深度剖析和表面分析了解不同的气候条件和不同颜色如何影响涂层特性。-开发非破坏性技术来评估风化样品的性能，如颜色、光泽、起泡和蠕变测量。-向塔塔钢铁颜色公司提供数据和建议。关于在不同的气候和市场中使用产品范围和颜色范围。对于新开发的产品，提供支持数据和预测性能的建议。

Tata Steel Europe (TSE) is the second largest producer of pre-painted steel in Europe. To maintain this position, the organisation is constantly trying to improve the current product range, either through the development of best in class coatings for the construction industry, improved offerings in service or through added functionality. As Tata's premium coated products can offer maintenance free warranties of up to 40 years it is essential that the performance under different climatic conditions are fully understood to support product guarantees, being new colour ranges to new markets and new climates and new product development for the next generation of painted steel coatings. To achieve this, the modes of degradation and failure must be well understood within these different environments. Once these have been identified, techniques for assessing the coatings' performance in a non-destructive manner will be developed, enabling new products to be established.The Research Engineer will:- Support product development with data and advice as to coatings performance, colour performance and associated product guarantee durations.- Investigate materials that have been degraded through external or accelerated testing. Many of these samples have been exposed for a minimum of 5 years.- Working collaboratively with TATA Steel Colors' key paint systems, and using techniques such as Ultra-Violet, attenuated Total Reflection, Fourier Transform Infra-Red and Raman spectroscopy, determine the mechanism and rates of organic coating degradation and erosion.- Gain an understanding of how different climatic conditions and different colours affect the coating characteristics using through-depth profile and surface analysis.- Develop non-destructive techniques to assess performance of weathered samples, such as colour, gloss, blister formation and creep measurements.- Provide data and recommendations to TATA Steel Colors, on use of product ranges and colour ranges in different climates and markets. For newly developed products, provide supporting data and recommendations of predicted performance.