In the end, Aegis Marine settled for $2.3 million. Marta kept her job, but she was demoted to field inspection. Liam was fired and later sued for gross negligence.
Her new supervisor, a young engineer named Torres, asked, “Isn’t this overkill? The coating looks perfect.”
“Gamma-7 is listing,” a panicked voice said. “Emergency shutdown. Get to the office.” astm d714 pdf
She arrived to a war room of blinking screens. An ROV (remotely operated vehicle) feed showed the leg supports in grim detail. Where there had been MD-4 blisters, there were now massive #0 blisters—size of dinner plates—Dense frequency. The coating had delaminated in sheets. Corrosion had eaten through the steel in three places.
Two years later, Marta stood on a new platform, the Gulf of Mexico breeze salt-stinging her face. She held a flexible plastic overlay printed with ASTM D714’s blister size references (#10 down to #0) and a density card (Dense, Medium, Few). In the end, Aegis Marine settled for $2
Liam didn’t last the week. Marta was called into a conference room with the company’s general counsel and a representative from the client’s insurance carrier.
Liam shrugged. “So patch it. Write a deviation.” Her new supervisor, a young engineer named Torres,
“We have a problem,” she told her boss, Liam. “The applicator didn’t control the humidity during curing. Trapped solvent vapor expanded. Blisters.”