Corrosion under Insulation (CUI) is one of the costliest problems facing the Oil & Gas and Process industries today. According to corrosion engineers problems such as major equipment outages and unexpected maintenance costs stemming from CUI account for more unplanned downtime than all other causes. Thermal insulation of piping valves tanks or vessels is achieved by an INTEGRAL SYSTEM comprising corrosion mitigation coating thermal insulation media and external cladding. If there is a failure of any of the three components this will result in the failure of the entire system or loss of long-term purpose of the system. Corrosion under insulation (CUI) generally originates from water from various sources such as rainfall cooling tower drift steam discharge wash downs and because insulation is not vapour tight condensation. This combined with the infiltration of contaminants into an insulated system which will vary in its water retention permeability and wettability characteristics.In the past manufacturers of the three separate components frequently compete between themselves who has the best component forgetting that the failure of the two remaining components may negate superiority of their particular component. There are numerous corrosion mitigation coatings lots of different types of thermal insulation media or types of external cladding. It is often the best combination of the three which results in the BEST THERMAL INSULATION SYSTEM that has the best chance in minimizing the CUI and fulfilling the long-term thermal insulation function.Apart from the costs incurred by equipment or process outages there is also other costs that are sometimes not considered and this is time taken to apply and handle the CUI coating system and the amount of repairs to CUI coatings in the field that occur adding to installed costs of the CUI system and increased project costs.Coatings utilised for the mitigation of CUI they have been prominent for decades and are described in detail in NACE Standard SP0198-2010 “The Control of Corrosion Under Thermal Insulation and Fireproofing Materials – A Systems Approach”More recently from the early 2000’s dedicated CUI coatings have been formulated but have been seen to be either;Too soft hard to handle without damage in new construction or refurbishment scenarios such as piping and valves resulting in delays to installation of the coated specimenToo hard and brittle hard to handle without damage in new construction or refurbishment scenarios such as piping and valves resulting in increased repairsThe challenge laid down by the customers to the coating manufacture is to develop a next generation CUI coatings combining both flexibility and also mechanical performance without detracting from the thermal and anti-corrosion performance which will lead to an increase in field productivity. However this is one part of the CUI mitigation system and does not get away from the fact that one of the major potential contributors to CUI is the type of insulation itself.This paper will detail the performance differences between 1st generation and the next generation of ‘Multi Polymeric Inorganic Copolymer ‘and the proven benefits observed by the end user in the field but will also look at the alternatives to traditional insulation in the fight against CUI.

Key Words :  Polymeric, Inorganic copolymer, CUI, next generation, insulation.