Railways are one of the major consumers of paints in the industry and they have always worked on setting higher standards by improving the benchmark of quality requirements. But again we always remember the age-old synthetic enamel painting system (IS2074, IS110, IS 5083, IS 5862, IS 8662), that were adopted by all Railways Coach manufacturers for their exterior application of trains and the challenges faced for the environment in which it is placed was so challenging that Railways looked for alternatives and high performance products. BERGER-PROTECTON took the lead, and it was through ICF Chennai in the years 2002-03 that the first painting of epoxy-polyurethanes was undertaken as a trial on JANSATABDI COACHES and observed for frequent inspections for a period of 18 months to evaluate and record the performance. Southern Railways had placed these coaches on regular run and those coaches with newer coating systems from various leading paint manufacturers were placed for comparative performance analysis. It is happy to recollect the final observation of coaches #2623 and 2707; it is clear that Berger’s product was doing well in terms of corrosion free performance and the general gloss retention is satisfactory in comparison to others.
We now find ourselves to see that epoxy-polyurethane coating system thus evolved into the RDSO specifications which is in force today. The coating system includes Epilux ROZP PCN Primer, Berger UPE Putty PCN 100, Berger PU Surfacer PCN-100, Bergerthane PU HG PCN 100/109. The
speciality of these high end coating systems is that they provide long term painting systems; thus saving the railways from frequent overhauling and painting.
Berger-Protecton has coated a total of 550 Coaches using a coating system complying with ROSO specifications. The range includes Rajdhani LHB Coaches, DEMUs, AC & Non AC Coaches at MCF-Raebareli, NCR-Jhansi, NFR-Dibrugarh & ECR-Sonpur. Berger took complete responsibility of the application process; and were commended by the Government of India through their Railway Board – ROSO, for excellence in painting practices and timely completion. Successfully taking one responsibility to another we now have NCR Jhansi with 450 Coaches and another 1400 coaches of Rajdhani LHB Coaches at MCF Raebareli.
Today we have Railways adopting yet another coating of Japanese technology, the fluoropolymers for finish to give the much looked-for long-term durability without compromising on the gloss and colour retention. RDSO approval was given as per JIS spec was obtained for Vande Bharat Coaches and BERGER-PROTECTON supplied for the first 300 bogies at Hyderabad. Another 2400 such units are going to be awarded shortly with these advanced systems.
Berger-PROTECTON continues to keep working closely with the research wing of RDSO to implement advanced coating system of international standards. Successful Trails were conducted at Titagarh Wagons for BOXNHL WAGON and proved for the value addition offered in terms of quality (improved drying and overcoating interval) as well as on reduced consumption. Berger-PROTECTON are the leaders in protective coating in India and we continue to strive and keep the honour of customers pride by ensuring corrosion free protection of their assets by constant interaction continued improvisation and enhancing with advanced protective coatings from R&D stage – manufacturing – supply – execution – inspection.
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Product Expertise Source: Berger Paints | This Product Expertise is a part of our Latest Magazine: Subscribe to our Magazine Today!
