UK Corrosion 2007 & 42nd Corrosion Science Symposium
by Prof. R.Akid
Sheffield Hallam University was host to the 2007 UK Corrosion conference & CSS and was a joint venture between The Institute of Corrosion and the Institute of Metal Finishing. The conference attracted over 90 delegates during the 3-day event.

Like previous meetings the CSS was run in parallel to the UK Corrosion and delegates were free to move between the 'industry-focussed' talks and the 'research in progress' talks. The UK corrosion theme was 'Managing Corrosion for Sustainability' with sessions being devoted to: Energy and the Environment; Metallic Coatings; Organic & Inorganic Coatings; The Built Environment and Corrosion Resistant Alloys, while that of the CSS held sessions on Recent Advances in Corrosion Science, Corrosion Resistant Alloys, Novel Techniques for Corrosion Studies and Coatings for Corrosion Control.

The conference was opened by Don Harrop of BP who described the nature of the task to continue to meet the global energy demand whilst ensuring the integrity of oil and gas exploitation and production facilities remained safe. His last slide illustrated quite nicely that despite all corrosion management strategies, sometimes nature has a habit of overriding the 'best laid plans'. Cristiano Padovani discussed the issues related to the safe long term storage of low and medium level nuclear waste. An interesting aspect was that of trying to predict the corrosion rates over timescales beyond that of all of our careers!

Prof. James Earthman gave an interesting •nlk on the effects of bacteria on both corrosion damage and potential corrosion mitigation. The examples shown were from three mile island in Pennsylvania. This was followed by two talks on the effects of corrosion on energy efficiency of central heating systems by Philip Munn and Paul Day.

Session 2 was devoted to metallic coatings. Wolfgang Hansal discussed issues relating to pulse deposition for copper and aluminium substrates while Ceoff Wilcox gave a presentation on the effects of whisker formation on coating integrity of tin and zinc coated surfaces. Tony Belts presented work related to the galvanic corrosion of thermally sprayed cast aluminium alloys in variety of solutions. An associated talk on thermal spray and vapour deposited coating was given by Ken Lawson.Trevor Pearson presented a study on corrosion protection mechanisms of Ni/Cr and Zn and Zn alloy coatings and the effects of surface modification by sonification on electroless coatings was presented by A Cobley. Session 3 was given up to organic/inorganic coatings. The subject was chosen to compliment the UR Evans lecture given by Professor David Scantlebury.The session was opened by M Griffiths who talked about the importance of the 'coating system' as an integrated unit. This was followed by P Hope who discussed general aspects of electrophoretic painting. BobAkid provided a talk on organic/inorganic sol gel coatings as environmentally friendly replacements for primers and pre-treatments on a selection of metal substrates. Electroactive polymers was the subject of the talk by Sheila Campbell discussing potential chromate replacements for chromates. John Sykes then gave an interesting talk on blister growth mechanisms and growth kinetics using the scanning acoustic microscope. This was followed by Brian Norton who talked about surface coatings for aero engines and allied ancillaries operating up to high temperatures in aggressive environments. The talks after lunch were given by Malcolm Morris who discussed some of the constraints, e.g. VOC emissions etc on final paint formulations and David Worsley who described the use of rapid photoactivity testing for the development of coil coatings.

The final day consisted of sessions on the Built Environment and Corrosion Resistant Alloys. The Built Environment session also opened by Stuart Matthews who showed that previously repaired concrete structures had unacceptably short lifetimes. Improved sustainability approaches were discussed. John Fletcher described a novel corrosion scanner for rebar assessment which was followed by D Carpenter's talk on the challenge of using recycled materials in novel concrete mixes. Dave Bewley discussed the advantages and limitations of the use of embedded galvanic anodes for corrosion control of rebar. This was followed by two entertaining talks from Chris Atkins and Paul Lambert of Mott MacDonald. Chris discussed the use of thermally sprayed metal as a corrosion protection system for reinforced concrete while Paul discussed the benefits and limitations of using'novel' fibre reinforced materials as an alternative to traditional reinforcing materials.

The last session of the conference was open by Chris Baxter who gave a rounded overview of the wide application of stainless steels, being mindful of the limitations of these materials. After his talk Chris suggested that this was the last technical presentation he would make, due to a recent illness. BobAkid thanked him for his professional commitment and honouring his agreement to give a keynote talk. We wish Chris a full recovery. The next two talks linked the morning and afternoon sessions.

Graham Gedge provided a presentation discussing the use of specific stainless steel alloys in the construction industry. Maria Posvarova gave a wealth of examples on the use and potential problems associated with the use of weathering steels in bridge structures. Graham Sussex complimented the talk of Chris Baxter in discussing the selection rules and tools for the use of stainless steel, illustrating the need to consider key aspects such as mechanical and chemical surface finish. The final talk was given by Gareth Hinds who presented a study on the susceptibility of 22Cr and 25Cr duplex SS under evaporative seawater conditions.

In closing Bob Akid thanked all the attendees, speakers, exhibitors, helpers and organisers, including Brenda Peters, David Greenfield, Paul Lambert, Ron Read, Bary Gay and Peter Farr. Key backroom staff included Steve Dodds (photographer), and the students of the Corrosion Research Group at Sheffield Hallam.

A collage of photographs from the conference are shown here. Courtesy of Mott Macdonald, copies of the presentations will be available on CD to attendees. CD's may be purchased by non-attendees by contacting Corrosion House.