Rust never sleeps. But this smart paint could change that.

Corrosion costs the global economy 3.4% of GDP – roughly US$2.5 trillion a year – and five tons of steel are lost to rust every single second. For navies and defence operators, the stakes go beyond cost. When critical vessels are tied up for maintenance, mission readiness suffers.  

Farzad Hashemi got a glimpse into the omnipresent challenge of corrosion in Atlantic Canada when he bought his first car in Canada. A metallurgical engineer who came here from Iran in 2014, he declined the rust-protection package he was offered, but the idea stuck with him.   

A few years later, he connected with someone who knew the game-changing potential of a new rust solution intimately. A naval architect by trade, Mike Maguire spent years as a Lloyd’s Register surveyor crawling through the ballast tanks of ships in the Port of Montréal.  

“I knew how big a problem this was, and how challenging it was to keep ships operational when corrosion was at play,” he recalls. 

In 2020, Hashemi and Maguire partnered to co-found Copsys Technologies to disrupt marine corrosion with a novel solution that evolved from that first moment on the car lot.   

An Anti-Corrosion Coating That Can Feel 

At the core of Copsys’s technology is the Copsys Intelligent Digital Skin, a smart paint that does what no coating has ever done. It’s the first non-toxic coated surface that reacts with seawater to keep ship hulls clean, stopping marine growth before it starts. And, if damage occurs and the metal beneath is exposed to a corrosive environment, the system detects the breach, pinpoints its location, and deploys an electrochemical barrier to stop corrosion in its tracks. The condition of the asset is also visible, in real time, on a digital “twin.” 

“It’s the first true disruption of impressed current cathodic protection since the Industrial Revolution. And it’s done through a paint,” explains Maguire.  

Working with academic collaborators Dr. George Jarjura at Dalhousie University’s Advanced Corrosion Laboratory and Dr. Susan Caines at Memorial University’s Marine Institute, Copsys has validated the technology from proof-of-concept through to field demonstration. The company now holds five granted patents, with three more pending, and a sixth application filed for Copsys Intelligent Pipeline Armor, a technology designed to extend the lifespan of buried and subsea steel infrastructure by decades. 

Supporting Mission Readiness  

Copsys’ technology is attracting growing attention in the defence sector. For naval and coast guard operators, corrosion is as much an issue of readiness as it is of maintenance. Canada’s frigates, the backbone of the Royal Canadian Navy, face state-of-readiness challenges in part because keeping aging vessels operational requires extensive maintenance to manage issues such as corrosion. Every ship that can’t sail is a gap in sovereign capability. 

“For navies, it’s about mission readiness. We need to either build more ships so we have enough that are ready to go, or we make them more resilient. That’s what we’re doing.”

Mike Maguire, CEO, Copsys Technologies Inc.

The company has run two successful pilot demonstrations in the North Sea—at an LNG liquefaction terminal in Norway, and a floating production facility in the UK. A third UK pilot is underway on a natural gas compression and export platform, where industry contractors are commissioning the system themselves without direct support from Copsys.  

“That’s exciting to us because it’s now in the hands of industry,” says Maguire. 

On the strength of this momentum, Copsys was one of 150 innovator companies selected from more than 3600 applicants for the NATO DIANA accelerator, participating in the Critical Infrastructure and Logistics cohort recently hosted by DefenceHub CzechInvest in Prague. The company has since pitched to NATO and international Defence audiences at the iconic Prague Planetarium and at Eurosatory in Paris, received an invitation to join the PortXL accelerator in Rotterdam, and will deliver papers to a NATO Science and Technology Organization working group on naval corrosion management and at the International Naval Engineering Conference in Edinburgh, all in the same year. 

Building Defence Talent – in Canada 

Throughout its development, Copsys has worked closely with Mitacs to access research talent through the Accelerate program, engaging interns from Dalhousie and Memorial universities to advance the technology’s validation and commercialization. Interns have contributed to mechanical performance testing of the coating, and the development of numerical models for Copsys’ live anomaly localization functionality via digital twins. 

“The beauty of Mitacs is that you’re able to work with people and identify that talent pool early. We’ve had some interns that really dove in, were fascinated with the technology, and really put their imagination into things.” 

Mike Maguire, CEO, Copsys Technologies Inc.

For Copsys, building that skilled workforce is about more than recruitment. As the company grows, access to highly skilled researchers is helping ensure that both the technology and the expertise behind it remain in Canada.  

With commercial readiness on the corrosion-under-insulation side expected within the year, a pipeline integrity technology project underway, and a growing list of defence and industry partners, Copsys is scaling quickly, and keeping its IP close to home. 

About Mitacs

For over 25 years, Mitacs has helped grow the economy and develop the workforce of tomorrow, connecting industry with academia and global partners to solve real-world challenges. We support business-academic research collaboration through internships, co-funded with businesses, for undergraduate to graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

As a national innovation connector, Mitacs takes a talent-first approach to strengthen innovation capacity and drive global competitiveness. We serve as an essential research-commercialization bridge, accelerating market entry and growth for new products and services.

This is a critical time for Canada to think big and take bold action. Mitacs is ready to help build a strong and resilient Canadian economy, powered by ideas, talent and innovation.

Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon.