Concrete Coating applications are typically used in offshore projects where anti-buoyancy properties are required as the sheer weight of the coating prevents pipe from floating to the surface. Another purpose of this coating is to protect pipelines from ship anchors, towed fish nets and other external forces, particularly during the transition period when pipe is being transported from onshore to offshore locations and lowered into place.

Concrete coating is applied one of two ways:

• Impingement coating is a process in which the concrete is sprayed over the outside diameter of the pipe. This is ideally done over pipe that has been Three Layer coated since the spray process would damage pipe with only FBE coating.
• Compression coating is a process in which concrete is compressed into a mat-like form and is then rolled onto the pipe. This process is more benign, and therefore acceptable, on the surface of FBE coated pipe. The drawback for this type of coating is the dimensional limitations for larger OD pipe. Anything over 20” OD is not suite to use this method and should be coated only by Impingement.

Concrete coating characteristics depend on different factors such as sea bottom conditions, water depth, currents, turbulences, fishing activities, pipe sizes, and water traffic. Due to all of these potential elements, reinforcement becomes vital in order to keep the coating around the pipe regardless of the conditions. To establish this, properties such as compression strength, tensile strength, and impact resistance are all taken into account.