Safely Coated Steel

Leisure Boat Lift is composed of steel. A lot of steel. And all that steel gets dropped into lakewater and left there for 25 years. Many people have thought of or suggested using a lead-based paint or coating, or using galvanized steel. We’ve chosen something different – an epoxy coating that we’ve had supplied by Cloverdale paint – the epoxy paint coating, ClovaGuard, that we use on every component of Leisure Boat Lift stands out amongst the other options. It is meant for industrial, structural steel in a marine environment. It is high performance, as well as abrasion and chemical resistant. This coating gets used all over the place – swimming pool liners, containers for potable liquids (such as orange juice or apple juice containers), other storage containers and with machinery. The coating becomes virtually inert when applied to the material – as it sits in the water, it does nothing but protect the steel. You can see aquatic plant life growing directly on the material, as if it were the lake bottom. It is a perfectly safe coating that is lead free, can not be rubbed off, and emits no chemicals or pollutants into the water. This safe epoxy coating is used on all of our products.

Some have asked about or suggested using Galvanized Steel. That option is a different story – it has a variety of pros and cons that match up against our method. When material is galvanized, it is coated with a thin layer of material such as Zinc. This provides a self-sacrificing layer which keeps the metal strong, while any wear and tear or rust only happens to that thin outside layer. Unfortunately, a few problems are associated with this. If the thin, outer-layer of zinc is damaged or dented, this causes a hole in that layer and allows the steel to corrode normally – something we try to avoid in a rough marine environment. Not only that, but the galvanized layering over top of the steel can often hide imperfections in the material. Lead can be found in the thin outside layer as well, which is something we do not want in our product. The use of lead paint or lead products isn’t even touched by us – keeping lead out of water is very important, and we follow that advice. No lead is used in any of our products, their coating, or any other material.

 

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