Impressed current cathodic protection and its effect on marine paint systems

The operation of impressed current cathodic protection devices on ships frequently results in some destruction of the paint coating on the rest of the structure. The reasons why these devices are more aggressive to paints than laboratory work suggests are explored and the operational parameters of practical systems described. The use of a conductive paint to simulate an anode is introduced as well as tests which have shown that a conducting paint film may be used as a cathodic protection anode with significant improvement in corrosion protection in high resistivity environments.