What Are Some Ways to Protect Ships From Corrosion: A Guide

Corrosion is a relentless force in marine environments, attacking shipboard systems, offshore equipment, and precision components alike. Understanding what are some ways to protect ships from corrosion is critical for maintaining vessel reliability, performance, and service life.

Rather than focusing on hull coatings alone, advanced surface treatments such as hard chrome, nickel-based coatings and passivation offer targeted protection for critical ship systems and marine assemblies.

1. Hard Chrome Plating: Wear and Corrosion Resistance for Marine Equipment

What are some ways to protect ships from corrosion?

Hard chrome plating remains a time-tested solution for protecting moving parts exposed to heavy wear and corrosive conditions. Components like drive shafts, hydraulic rods and valve stems benefit from the dense, high-hardness barrier chrome creates.

Hard chrome advantages:

Extreme hardness: With a hardness range of ~68 to 72 Rockwell C, hard chrome resists mechanical wear and abrasive damage in dynamic marine systems.
Corrosion resistance: Properly applied chrome plating slows corrosive attack in salt-laden environments, buying critical time between maintenance intervals.
Serviceability: Damaged or worn chrome surfaces can often be stripped, repaired, and re-plated, reducing component replacement costs.

Hard chrome considerations:

Microcrack management: Over time, chrome surfaces can develop microcracks, requiring periodic inspection to prevent seawater intrusion.

Regulatory controls: Due to environmental regulations on hexavalent chromium, reputable vendors maintain strict controls during plating processes.

2. Nickel-Based Coatings: Enhanced Corrosion and Wear Protection

Nickel-based surface treatments such as electroless nickel and nickel-boron variants offer outstanding protection for ship components and offshore equipment.

Nickel coatings advantages:

Uniformity: Electroless nickel coats parts evenly, including intricate geometries like threads, internal passages, and blind holes, ensuring full coverage.
High corrosion resistance: High-phosphorus electroless nickel (10–13% P) delivers exceptional protection against seawater corrosion, making it ideal for valves, pumps, and fluid handling systems.
Superior hardness: Nickel-boron coatings can achieve hardness values up to 70 Rockwell C without heat treatment, minimizing galling and fretting wear.

Nickel coatings considerations:

Higher initial cost: Some nickel coatings often cost more than basic chrome but deliver longer service life and lower total lifecycle costs.

Process control: Proper heat treatment and bath chemistry are crucial to achieving optimal corrosion and wear properties. A reliable partner is a must.

3. Advanced Passivation: Optimizing Stainless Steel Marine Parts

For marine-grade stainless steels, advanced passivation processes enhance corrosion resistance by refining the surface oxide layer.

Passivation advantages:

Improved passive films: By removing iron contaminants, passivation enriches the chromium oxide layer that naturally protects stainless steels from corrosion.
Sustainability: Modern citric acid passivation methods used by top providers are environmentally friendly and avoid hazardous waste concerns.
Performance in chloride environments: Properly passivated 316, duplex and super duplex stainless steels resist pitting, crevice corrosion and stress corrosion cracking even in high-chloride marine settings.

Passivation Considerations:

Surface preparation: Passivation improves the material’s inherent properties but does not repair physical damage or deep contamination.

Ongoing maintenance: Even passivated components require regular cleaning and visual inspections to maintain corrosion resistance.

Extending Marine Assets with Targeted Protection

Understanding what are some ways to protect ships from corrosion means going beyond large-scale coatings and focusing on the protection of critical marine systems and assemblies.

Hard chrome plating delivers exceptional wear resistance for high-stress components. Nickel-based coatings balance wear and corrosion protection for vital mechanical systems. Advanced passivation treatments enhance the corrosion resistance of stainless steel assemblies and hardware.

For ship operators, offshore engineers and marine equipment managers, aligning the right surface treatment with the component’s environment and function ensures reliable performance, lower maintenance costs and longer asset life.

Selecting proven protective solutions for precision marine components helps ships and offshore platforms withstand the harshest conditions the oceans can deliver.

Protect your components across marine, aerospace, medical, molding and all industries we serve with our precision coatings and finishes at Bales Metal Surface Solutions. Explore customized surface solutions built for your performance needs.