National guard

摘要

Coating manufacturers in the USA can now get their products approved for a national register, rather than having to pay for separate tests in each state. A system is now in place that aims to do away with the need for coating systems to gain separate approval from every bridge-owning agency. In the current system, a manufacturer may spend US$10,000 and nine months on a coating system qualification testing programme for state agency A only to find out that, in order to get on the approved list for state agency B he must contract for a different battery of tests that will not only cost more money, but will delay his eligibility to supply coatings to that state for an entire painting season. However, the agencies themselves are also burdened; they must constantly test new technology coating systems from various suppliers, and re-test coating systems that may have been reformulated to comply with reduced volatile organic compound thresholds. As a result, they may only have a limited number of suppliers for a given coating system, which can result in higher material costs.