Honoring top coatings projects from the past year – and the commitment and achievement that made them possible – the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) has awarded Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine and its project partners three of the seven 2022 AMPP Project of the Year Awards. 

Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine was recognized for its contributions to a community service project, as well as for excellence in both technical support of materials protection systems and in management of a complex materials protection project. The awards recognize top projects and outstanding accomplishments in categories that span a diverse range of assets and service conditions. This year also represents the inaugural year for the organization’s revamped awards slate, which also includes categories that acknowledge noteworthy achievements in newly constructed projects, materials protection or remediation, coating craftmanship, coatings work in a fixed shop facility, and aesthetic merit in a coatings project. AMPP recognized the winning projects, companies and individuals on March 22, 2023, during the annual AMPP Annual Conference + Expo in Denver, Colorado.

Following the creation of AMPP in 2021, which unified the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) and the Society of Protective Coatings (SSPC), the newly formed AMPP Awards Program Committee reworked the former Structure Awards program to pay homage to the distinguished histories of both organizations, while also creating distinct ways to acknowledge exceptional achievement by AMPP members. 

“We are proud to have contributed to nearly half of the winning projects honored by the first-ever AMPP Project of the Year Awards. These diverse projects, which demonstrate our team’s commitment to enhancing asset protection, enabling efficiencies and advancing coatings science to obtain excellent results, will protect assets for years to come,” said Bryan Draga, global vice president of Marketing, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine. “We are honored to be recognized for the contributions and accomplishments of our remarkable professionals in materials performance and protection, who set the standard in leveraging high-performance coatings to complete projects in optimal ways by working closely with asset owners, specifiers, engineers and applicators.” 

Excellence in Technical Support of Materials Protection Systems

Milky Way Digester, Maricopa, Arizona

Recognizing teams who exhibit exceptional commitment, professionalism, and reliability in providing technical support, the Excellence in Technical Support of Materials Protection Systems award also honors individuals for exceptional dedication to service, safety and risk management, project management systems, data analytics, and innovative technology implementation.

Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine provided extensive technical support for the lining of a new concrete wastewater digester for the Milky Way Dairy Farm that will generate renewable energy by capturing natural gas created by the breakdown of dairy waste. 

Water and wastewater-focused business development managers from Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine frequently visited the site to assist the engineering team with application details for the lining project. The project also represented a unique collaboration between oil and gas contractors, a water engineering firm, the farm, and Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine. 

The Sherwin-Williams team helped with the preparation for applying an epoxy lining system that would protect the digester’s vapor space, including the concrete ceiling and three feet down the digester’s walls, to resist corrosion from hydrogen sulfide gases that accumulate in this space. The football field-sized digester, with a coated surface exceeding 110,000 square feet, received more than 3,500 gallons of Dura-Plate® 6100 HS, applied at 40+ mils dry film thickness (DFT) in one coat.

Months of extensive planning provided an efficient sequence of first insulating the exterior of the digester’s roof, which allowed for cooler and better regulated application temperatures inside. With laitance on the ceiling panels deliberately exterior-facing, vapor blasting and coating took less time, with fewer bug holes realized and minimal repairs required. Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine also provided training on plural-component sprayers and blasting equipment. The seams between the large concrete roof panels were filled with cementitious grouting, into which applicators back brushed a stripe coat of Dura-Plate 6100. Quality assurance was ensured with a third-party NACE inspection.

Key contributors to the award-winning project included Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine as the supplier of coatings and technical support, digester owner Avolta, and lining contractor Barrier Insulation. 

Excellence in Management of a Complex Materials Protection Project (Project Award in honor of George Campbell)

USS John C. Stennis CVN-74 Aircraft Carrier 

Recognizing superior management of a complex project involving one or multiple materials protection solutions, the Excellence in Management of a Complex Materials Protection Project award honors an overall project and the contributions of a management team.

Multiple partners ensured the successful mid-life refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) of the U.S. Navy-operated USS John C. Stennis, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, after 25 years of service. Requiring years of planning, execution and superior management, the project encompasses a full overhaul including the preservation of the vessel’s entire interior and exterior coatings with state-of-the-art materials that met military specifications.

Mid-Atlantic Coatings, Inc. (MAC), the application contractor and management lead, teamed with Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, to use various corrosion control technologies on the ship while it was in dry dock at the HII-Newport News Shipyard in Virginia. Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine MIL-Spec coatings technologies were widely used on more than 1.2 million square feet of the carrier’s surface, including in the preservation of the vessel’s ballast and jet fuel tanks, freeboard areas and dielectric shields.

After completing environmentally friendly surface preparations using recyclable steel grit and non-gasoline powered pressure washers, MAC coated the ship’s ballast, jet fuel, and potable water tanks, including more than 160 confined spaces comprising 450,000 square feet. The primary coating used to accomplish this significant task was Fast-Clad® ER, a single-coat, rapid-cure, ultra-high solids, low-VOC, edge-retentive high-build epoxy. 

MAC also coated the much of the ship’s freeboard and topside – more than 650,000 square feet of steel – with a two-coat system featuring Fast-Clad ER as the primer with a topcoat of Polysiloxane XLE-80 HAPS Free that features a unique low-solar-absorption (LSA) pigment package. Developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the LSA pigments enhance the vessel’s total solar reflectance, enabling it to stay 10-15 °F cooler and, therefore, require less energy for controlling the climate of interior spaces. The coating system will also help the carrier maintain its signature haze grey color due to its superior gloss and abrasion resistance. 

For the ship’s impressed current cathodic protection system – which provides supplemental corrosion protection for the hull – applicators preserved 17 dielectric shields using a spray-applied system featuring Nova-Plate UHS. The sprayable dielectric shield coating is significantly easier to apply and more user friendly than the traditional trowel-applied capastic, which must be manually troweled onto surfaces and smoothed.

This complex project was accomplished throughout the pandemic amidst various supply chain and raw material shortages. 

Key contributors to the award-winning project included the U.S. Navy, HII-Newport News Shipyard, Mid-Atlantic Coatings, Inc., Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, and equipment suppliers V.O. Baker Company, WIWA LLC and Barton International.

Community Service Award

The Childhood Express (known as the Red Wagon), Spokane, Washington

Recognizing extraordinary service benefiting a community, the Community Service Award honors projects conducted for the purposes of humanitarian causes, non-profit work, community awareness, honoring military veterans, museums, education facilities, structures demonstrating appreciation or honor of volunteers, memorials, or projects completed through volunteer efforts or through donations of equipment or labor.

Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, Modern Construction & Consulting Services, Northwest Sandblast and Paint, and the City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department partnered to give new life to a beloved icon in Spokane’s signature urban park.

Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine donated all coatings to the first significant repair of the iconic Red Wagon, a sculpture of a Radio Flyer that doubles as a playground slide, since its construction and installation in 1989. 

Having hosted countless visitors, the wagon and its exterior showed wear and tear and exhibited evidence of vandalism. For its restoration, applicators from Northwest Sandblast and Paint sandblasted the sculpture to its bare steel and then sprayed a single coat of Zinc Clad II over the entire surface as a primer. They next applied a double coat of Sher-Loxane 800 – in the exact Pantone red color of Radio Flyer wagons – opting for the superior gloss and color retention of this product to ensure long-term aesthetics. 

Applicators also restored the wagon’s concrete wheels, first using Macropoxy 646 Fast Cure – a two-component, high-solids, fast-drying polyamide epoxy mastic – as a primer, followed by two coats of Sher-Loxane 800.

Key contributors to the award-winning project included Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine, the City of Spokane, Northwest Sandblast and Paint, consultant Modern Construction & Consulting Services, and Ken Spiering, the artist and original creator of the Red Wagon.

*All images courtesy of Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine.