2017 has been another eventful year for ICATS with the launch of the new Supervisor Course, the update of the Req Doc and the introduction of the CSCS Partner Scheme Card. 2018 promises to be another busy year with several new innovations planned.

Company Trainer Course

The next Company Trainer Course will be held on 16th and 17th January 2018 in Northampton. Please call the Correx office on 01604 438222 to book places.

Supervisor Course

We have held four Supervisor Courses during 2017 and the date for the first in 2018 will be announced soon. The application form can be downloaded from our website, www.icats-training.org under the Supervisors Module tab, or places can be booked by calling the Correx office. The eligibility for the course is as follows:

1. Any applicator who has two years’ experience following successfully completing the mandatory Industrial Coating Applicator (ICA) ICATS module. 

2. Supervisors and Technical Managers who have more than two years’ experience in the industrial coating field with supporting evidence from their employer, even if they have not completed the ICA course.

3. Other candidates (from non ICATS registered companies) with at least five years’ verifiable experience in the coating industry will also be eligible.

Eligibility for Applicator Training

Except at approved ICATS Registered Training Providers, all Applicators being registered for ICATS training must be a genuine employee of the company that registers them. We will be auditing all companies certifying Applicators and if this process reveals personnel have been certified and are not employed by the company that provided the ICATS training, the registration will be cancelled.

Approved ICATS Registered Training Providers are listed on our website.

Trainee Cards/Mentoring

In the latest version of the Req Doc (the Institute of Corrosion document which defines the requirements for the operation of the ICATS scheme) there were various changes of which a major one was clarification on Trainee cards and mentoring.

Candidates undergoing training for certification as Industrial Coating Applicator are not required to have any previous experience of industrial coatings application but if they have less three years’ experience , they will be required to be mentored by a qualified ICATS operative in the workplace for a period of one year after successful completion ICATS ICA  training. During the year of mentoring they will carry a Coating Applicator Trainee wallet card which is valid for one year to signify their status as under mentoring. A log of weekly activity must be kept and signed by the applicator and mentor during this period. A qualified ICATS operative may mentor a maximum of five Trainees at one time.  On successful completion of the year as a Trainee, the candidate will be issued with an ICATS applicator card valid for a further two years at no cost.

Keep up to date with ICATS via the website
www.icats-training.org

2018 Paul McIntyre Award

We look forward to receiving nominations for the 2018 Paul McIntyre award, which is presented to a senior corrosion engineer, who, as well as being a leading practitioner in his field, has advanced European collaboration and international standards development.  Please send any nominations for the Paul McIntyre award to the chair of the Corrosion Engineering Division, Nick Smart (nick.smart@woodplc.com), by 31 January 2018.  The criteria for the recipient of this award are that, they have established an international reputation in the field of corrosion engineering, they have demonstrably advanced European collaboration and international standards development in the field of corrosion engineering, they must be living and working in the European corrosion community, and a member of a corrosion-related body in the European area (e.g. NACE UK, the Institute of Materials, the Institute of Corrosion, or another European corrosion society).  They must not be a current member of the Council of the Institute of Corrosion, and be aged over 30.

The award consists of an engraved trophy, which will be presented at the annual CED working day meeting.  The recipient will be requested to present a brief overview of their activities and encouraged to prepare an article for publication in Corrosion Management. 

2018 Working day

Following on from the successful Division working day on the topic of ‘Corrosion Engineering and Concrete’, the 2018 meeting will be held at the Birchwood Park Conference Centre, Warrington, on Tuesday 24 April 2018 on the subject of ‘Atmospheric Corrosion in Industrial Applications’. Most of the presentations from the previous CED meetings, and documents produced by the working groups, are available to members through the members’ area of the Institute’s website.

Coatings guidance documents

The Coatings Working group, under David Horrocks’ chairmanship, has prepared a series of guidance documents on the following topics:

• Inspection and testing of coatings

• Organic coating application methods

• Surface Preparation methods for coating application

• Paint: a definition and generic organic coating types

• Thermal metal spray coatings

• Corrosion protection coatings for steel structures

These documents are nearing completion and will be made available free of charge through the members area of the Institute’s website over the next few months.

Professional Development is a fundamental part of any career in engineering, either Initial Professional Development (IPD) for graduate engineers, or Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for established engineers, ensuring that you keep up to date by constantly learning, improving knowledge and developing skills to stay at the forefront of your industry. Not only will this aid your contribution to corrosion engineering, but it will also help you get the most out of your career.   The Institute is committed to provide assistance and guidance in IPD and CPD by, the exchange of information and ideas at branch meetings, seminars and conferences, the provision of training courses in corrosion control activities to members and non-members, and as the Institute is a Learned Professional Body it has a Continuing Professional Development Record Scheme and the provisions to become Chartered Engineers or Scientists.

Like all professional societies, ICorr needs to take regular stock of how well it is serving the needs of its members. At the same time, the Institute has ambitious plans for future growth, with a target of achieving 2000 members by 2020. With this in mind, earlier this year the President Sarah Vasey asked me to chair a Membership Development committee, on which I have been joined by Young ICorr Chair Chris Bridge and ICorr Past Presidents John Fletcher and Bill Cox. Our remit was to review the perceived benefits of ICorr membership and to propose ways of enhancing what we can offer our members in order to sustain this growth.

Following much consultation and lively debate, we have put together a summary of the main benefits of ICorr membership, which will appear shortly on the website. We will be using this as the basis for a sustained marketing drive, both within the UK and overseas, with a particular focus on students and early career professionals. This demographic is clearly key to the future of the Institute but has suffered a slight decline in numbers in recent years, which needs to be addressed as an urgent priority. One important initiative will be to strengthen our links with materials science and engineering students in UK universities by arranging automatic ICorr student membership registration for selected undergraduate courses. We will also be putting in place measures to retain these members once they have joined the workforce, for example by connecting them with successful initiatives such as the Young Engineer programme.

The central theme that has emerged quite strongly from our discussions is that you get out what you put in. The benefits of being an ICorr member increase dramatically the more you get involved, whether it be attending local Branch or Division meetings, joining a committee, attending a training course, carrying out professional assessment reviews or organising a conference. So I would encourage all members to consider how you could get more involved in the various activities of the Institute. Together we are greater than the sum of our parts!