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Standards & Inspection

SSPC, ISO and NACE surface preparation grades explained, plus how to measure profile, salts and flash rust, inspect the work and write a specification that holds up.

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Reading list · 13Topic overview →
  1. Start here

    Complete Guide to SSPC Surface Preparation Standards: SP-1 Through SP-16 and WJ Levels

    SSPC standards, now published by AMPP, define how clean steel must be before coating. SP 1 removes oil and grease; SP 2...

  2. 2

    SSPC-SP10 Near-White Metal Blast: The Complete Technical Guide

    SSPC-SP 10 / NACE No. 2, Near-White Metal Blast Cleaning, is the joint AMPP blast-cleaning standard that requires steel to be free...

  3. 3

    SSPC-SP11 Power Tool Cleaning to Bare Metal: Complete Technical Guide

    SSPC-SP 11 is the power tool standard for cleaning steel to bare metal. The surface must be free of all visible oil,...

  4. 4

    SSPC-SP6 vs SP10: Which Surface Preparation Standard Does Your Project Need?

    SSPC-SP 6 (Commercial Blast Cleaning, roughly ISO Sa 2) allows random staining on up to 33% of each unit area; SSPC-SP 10...

  5. 5

    SSPC-SP5 White Metal Blast: When Is It Required?

    SSPC-SP 5 / NACE No. 1 (ISO 8501-1 Sa 3) white metal blast is required only where the coating data sheet or...

  6. 6

    Water Jetting Surface Preparation Standards: WJ-1 Through WJ-4 Explained

    SSPC-SP WJ-1 to WJ-4 / NACE WJ-1 to WJ-4 grade water jetting at 70 MPa (10,000 psi) and above: WJ-1 clean to...

  7. 7

    Anchor Profile Measurement: Field Guide for Inspectors

    Anchor profile is the peak-to-valley height of a prepared steel surface. In the field it is measured to ASTM D4417, usually by...

  8. 8

    Soluble Salt Contamination: Why It Causes Coating Failure and How to Test for It

    Soluble salts (mainly chlorides, sulphates and nitrates) are invisible ionic contaminants that stay on steel after surface preparation. Trapped under a coating,...

  9. 9

    Flash Rust: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Prevent It

    Flash rust is a thin layer of rust that forms on freshly prepared carbon steel as it dries after water jetting, wet...

  10. 10

    Coating Inspection: The 11 Hold Points That Prevent Most Failures

    Coating inspection is the documented verification, at defined hold points, that surface preparation, application and cure meet the specification. A typical sequence...

  11. 11

    How to Write a Surface Preparation Specification That Gets Results

    A surface preparation specification must state, for every area, the cleanliness grade by full designation (for example SSPC-SP 10/NACE No. 2 or...

  12. 12

    What Makes a Coating Specification Enforceable

    A coating specification is enforceable when every requirement can be measured against a cited standard: a named cleanliness grade (ISO 8501-1 or...

  13. 13

    Coating Adhesion Explained: Why Peak Height Alone Doesn't Predict Bond Strength

    Coating adhesion depends on both peak height (how deep the anchor profile is) and peak density (how many peaks there are per...