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Joint Standard Certifies Paint Shops

Thursday, April 7, 2011

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Industrial painting companies that shop-apply protective coatings systems may now seek certification under a new standard jointly developed by two leading technical organizations.

SSPC: The Society for Protective Coatings and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) have jointly developed "Certification Standard for Shop Application of Complex Protective Coating Systems."

"The strength of this standard is that it enables paint shops and steel fabricators to meet the qualification criteria of two major organizations at one time, while giving owners and specifiers a single governing document to reference,” said Michael Damiano, SSPC’s director of product development.

SSPC/AISC Partnership

The standard caps several years of work by a joint committee of coatings and steel industry professionals representing both organizations. The standard describes requirements for certification of firms that shop-apply complex painting systems.

Alpine Painting

Certification will attest to “knowledgeable personnel and the organization, experience, procedures, and equipment to provide surface preparation and application of complex painting systems in a shop facility,” says an AISC official.

Certification “will confirm to owners, the design community, and the construction industry that a firm has knowledgeable personnel and the organization, experience, procedures, and equipment to provide surface preparation and application of complex painting systems in a shop facility according to contract specifications,” said Jacques Cattan, AISC’s VP of Certification.
 
The joint standard is available now for free download at www.aisc.org/JointPaintStandard and www.sspc.org, for inclusion into project specifications and contract documents.

Full Implementation in 2012

Beginning June 1, participants will be responsible only for the current standard’s criteria, but will be informed of changes or possible non-conformances that will take effect with the new joint standard during their next annually scheduled audit. Full implementation of the standard will be complete in 2012.

AISC, established in 1921, is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association for the structural steel design community and construction industry. SSPC is the leading society in the field of protective coatings.