AEP-63 non-skid coating system performance requirements

What it is

AEP-63, Performance Requirements for Non-Skid Coating Systems, is a NATO Allied Engineering Publication, Edition 1, promulgated in April 2009. It sets the minimum laboratory performance requirements a non-skid coating system has to meet before it is treated as qualified for use on a ship's exterior and interior decks. The document is addressed to the coating manufacturer directly: Chapter 6.1 states that "The Manufacturer shall submit a technical file containing all of the following information and documents" whenever a system is put forward for qualification, and it is the manufacturer, not a shipyard or a national authority, who carries every duty the text describes.

The scope is narrow and explicit. AEP-63 "deals with the performance requirements for non-skid performance and corrosion resistance by non-skid coating systems of ships exterior and interior decks exposed to the marine atmosphere", specifically the "very high marine corrosivity category" C5-M defined by ISO 12944-2. It covers systems applied to "C-Mn steels, other metallic materials or Glass Reinforced Plastic (resin fibreglass)"; wood and rubber substrates are excluded. It sets minimum service-life targets of 15,000 landings or 24 months for aircraft-carrier landing areas, and 4 years for non-landing exterior and interior areas, and it says plainly that it "does not establish requirements for emissivity (IR) of the top coat." That exclusion is deliberate, not an oversight.

As an Allied Publication, AEP-63 is the technical content, not the commitment: the catalogue records it as covered by STANAG 4698, which is how NATO nations formally commit to using it, though AEP-63's own text never names that STANAG. A manufacturer or shipbuilder meets AEP-63 because a naval new-build or maintenance contract specifies a system already qualified against it, not because the document binds anyone directly; some of its own values, the footnote to the paint-identification table records, are simply "agreed between parties (contractor and manufacturer)".

Field of application

The document sets out what it covers before it sets out what to test (Chapter 5). Structures are ship decks in steel, other metals, or GRP; wood and rubber are out of scope. Surface preparation depends on the substrate: steel to Sa 2½ (ISO 8501-1), GRP by sweep blasting to remove gloss, other metals by sweep blasting with an optional solvent wipe, and roughness graded to Medium Grit under ISO 8503-2. Contamination limits before application cover dust, humidity, oil and grease, and soluble salts capped at 5 µg/cm² chloride equivalent (Table 5-2). Where shop primers were applied at the build stage, they "are not considered as the first coat of non-skid coating system and must be removed prior to application of the non-skid system."

Applications covered are new-build (a full recoat after removing any pre-existing coating) and the ongoing maintenance regime a new-build system has to be adaptable to, including localized repairs where a deck is damaged.

What a qualification submission has to contain

At submission, the manufacturer identifies the system and every constituent product by unique nomenclature, and files a technical file: the system's own technical data sheet, the ISO 20340 product information set, a material safety data sheet in whatever format the national regulation requires, and use references from prior applications. If a product's formula changes at any point, the change must be "noted and justified by the manufacturer proving that such changes do not negatively affect the long-term properties of the material" (see Annex A.4), with a fresh data sheet filed for the modified product.

The coating system itself

Basic requirements (§6.2) fix what the system has to be capable of: maintaining slip resistance and anticorrosive performance through its service life in C5-M "without total replacement" (§6.2.1), a primer compatible with the adjacent ship structure's own paint system, compatibility with the standard maintenance system, reflectance below 0.12 for landing areas (per STANAG 1162), and colour stability. The architecture is specific: at least one primer coat and one contrasting stripe coat at welds, edges and deck protrusions, each 125 µm nominal dry film thickness or more, and a non-skid topcoat applied either rolled (0.50 to 0.75 m²/l) or sprayed in two coats (1.8 m²/l or less each), with no mechanical surface preparation between coats. Dry-hard time is capped at 16 hours, pot life must exceed 2 hours at 20°C, adhesion must reach at least 4 MPa by pull-off test, shelf life must be at least 18 months from delivery, and VOC is capped at 250 g/L for primer and intermediate coats against 340 g/L for the topcoat. Throughout, coatings "shall not exhibit on delivery or during shelf life: hard settling, skinning, phase separation, corrosion of container, persistent foam after mix or other properties indicating unfitness for use."

The qualification test battery

Before performance testing starts, storage stability is checked by an accelerated method: an unopened container held at 60°C for 30 days must remix to a smooth condition within 5 minutes. The tests that follow (Table 7-1) cover coefficient of friction (dry, wet and oil-wetted, on panels worn to 50 and 500 cycles, per STANAG 1278); cable wear and wear resistance for landing areas, on a reciprocating cable-abrasion rig loaded to 13.6 kg; impact resistance, a 1.8 kg tup dropped from 1.2 metres in a fixed 25-point pattern; resistance to chemical solutions, immersion in NATO fuels, lubricants and fire-fighting agents under STANAG 1135 and MIL-F-24385; salt spray for 1440 hours; condensation for 720 hours; UV exposure for 150 cycles; colour stability over 12 months; natural aging in C5-M for at least 2 years; and fire resistance to STANAG 4602, or MIL-STD-1623 for the United States.

Acceptance criteria (Table 7-2) are numeric throughout: pull-off adhesion must retain at least half its original value after testing with any failure only cohesive; delamination from a scribe line must stay under 3 mm; blistering, rusting, cracking and flaking must each rate zero on the ISO 4628 scale, chalking no worse than 1; and colour difference must stay within the tolerances the document sets by nation. Each coating is separately characterised (Chapter 8) against density, solids and pigment content, and drying, flash-point and VOC values, each against a named ISO method and a manufacturer-declared tolerance. Every test run closes with a written report (Chapter 9) naming the laboratory, the dates, the panel preparation, and the before- and after-ageing results, plus "any deviation from the test methods specified."

How you are evaluated

AEP-63 creates no certification, accreditation or audit scheme. It describes itself as "a specification for the approval of non-skid coating systems", not a scheme with a named certifying body: no accredited body, NATO authority or national agency is described as reviewing a submission or granting qualified status. What exists instead is a test-and-report process: a manufacturer runs the Chapter 7 and Annex B tests, produces the Chapter 9 report, and the acceptance decision sits with whoever controls the contract or the national programme built on top of this document. Where AEP-63 does name who sets a figure, it points outward: the minimum coefficient of friction is left to be "defined at the national level" while remaining "in agreement with STANAG 1278."

Standards it references

• STANAG 4698 covers AEP-63; it is how NATO nations formally commit to the specification, though AEP-63's own text does not name it.
• STANAG 1135 defines the NATO fuels, lubricants and other fluids used as immersion media in the chemical-resistance test.
• STANAG 1162 sets the reflectance limit AEP-63 requires of landing-area coatings.
• STANAG 1278 supplies both the apparatus and the national-level acceptance approach for the coefficient-of-friction test.
• STANAG 4602 is the fire-assessment method AEP-63 calls up for fire resistance, alongside MIL-STD-1623 for the United States.

AEP-63 also normatively cites close to thirty civil test-method standards for its individual tests, principally the ISO 12944 corrosion-protection series, ISO 20340, the ISO 8501/8502/8503 surface-preparation series, ISO 9227 (salt spray), ISO 4624 (adhesion) and ISO 4628 (degradation rating), together with several ASTM, BS and FED-STD methods. These sit outside our catalogue and are named here rather than linked.

Getting the document

NATO publishes AEP-63 through the NATO Standardization Document Database at no charge. ComplyTrain does not sell it or host a copy; the NSDD listing for AEP-63 is the source.

Standards it references

• STANAG 1278Binds
• STANAG 1135Background
• STANAG 1162Background
• STANAG 4602Background