Alan Denney receiving an Award

Alan Denney receiving an Award

A member of the Institute, Alan Denney, has been given an award from the Corrosion Institute of Southern Africa, relating to the external corrosion management of the refined products pipeline which goes from the port of Beira in Mozambique to the tank farm at Feruka in Zimbabwe.

The award acknowledges the long-term external corrosion management of the line over many years. Michael Brett and Partners in RSA performed work on the pipeline in the 1980s, and  John Brown E&C Ltd designed and carried out construction management for an extensive rehabilitation of the line in 1990 – 1993. The CP system maintenance and upgrading was continued by Corrolec Corrosion Services in RSA and subsequently by ACEL and Isinyithi Cathodic Protection (Pty) Ltd.  Whilst the work has involved many engineers and specialists throughout approximately 40 years, the cathodic protection work had been conducted to a very significant extent by Neil Webb who worked for these companies. The award was given to acknowledge all the companies involved, and that for John Brown was (unexpectedly) sent to Alan, as the head of the materials, corrosion and welding engineering department in John Brown in London at the time of the pipeline rehabilitation in 1990-1993.

Membership Development

Can you help promote student membership of ICorr in your local university?

The activities of the Membership Development Committee are gathering pace, with the latest committee meeting taking place in June.  A major initiative to grow our student membership is now underway, led by Young ICorr chair Chris Bridge, who has visited the Materials Science department at the University of Oxford to sign up students for free ICorr membership. This has proved to be a far more direct and effective way of engaging with students than email contact with individual academics.

The plan between now and September is to build a cohort of volunteers to roll this process out to other universities in the autumn. If you are willing to visit the Materials Science department of your local university (or even better, the university you attended yourself) we would love to hear from you. This would involve an hour or so of your time to give a short presentation outlining the benefits of membership to a group of students (slides will be provided) and to answer any questions they have about the Institute.

Student membership of ICorr is free and the main barrier to signing up new members is simply lack of opportunities for contact. By reaching out to relatively large numbers of students in this way we should be able to increase uptake of membership significantly – and if we can retain even a fraction of these in the longer term it will make a massive contribution to the sustainability of the Institute.

If this sounds like something you could help with, please contact Chris, at bridge.christian@gmail.com.

Other ongoing membership development activities include refreshing the Institute brand and website, simplifying procedures for applying for membership and upgrades, establishing a policy on subscriptions for retired members, and developing the concept of Corporate Membership. More information on these and other initiatives will follow in future issues of Corrosion Management.

New Sustaining Member – R&W Rail

New Sustaining Member – R&W Rail

R&W provide a comprehensive range of rail, civil engineering, traffic management, environmental and plant specialist services, operating primarily in Highway and Rail environments.   Their founding principle of direct employment and asset ownership ensures they can offer reliable and yet flexible services to all their clients. R&W’s aim is to be “employer and contractor of choice”, a vision which has established their capability of delivering all aspects of project life cycles (plan, design, build, refurbish and recycle). To support this R&W have a highly skilled and motivated workforce of more than 200,  who embrace the company values of being safe, respectful and always delivering. This culture is the “R&W Way” and has helped them develop effective and collaborative relationships with clients, regularly being rewarded for their service and operational excellence.  They have an in-house capability to train their workforce to achieve ICATS accreditation and have an in-house ICorr Paint Inspector to ensure the works are carried out to the client’s specifications.  They strive to continually improve what they do and work hard at achieving recognised business standards, holding numerous accreditations (i.e. ISO 9001//18001/44001/14001).

New Sustaining Member – HDM Tubes Ltd

New Sustaining Member – HDM Tubes Ltd

HDM Tubes Ltd., based in Cardiff, is a leading manufacturer of spirally welded LD pipes for the foundation and construction industries.   The mill layout has been specially designed to roll heavy gauges up to 32 mm and long lengths up to 45 m.  The Cardiff factory is equipped with shot blasting/painting, clutch/interlock welding, facilities for combi-wall applications, and also has a workshop for any other necessary attachments to meet custom-made pipe designs.

As the only spiral pipe producer of heavy gauge and long pipes in UK, HDM Tubes Ltd. is able to provide short lead times for specific projects and customer needs.  Taking advantage of their base at Cardiff Docks, they are able to ship long and heavy pipes directly to vessels, barges and trucks and can serve around the UK, Ireland and Europe.

HDM Tubes Lltd is also certified with quality, health and safety and environmental management systems registered to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 18001.

The President Writes …

The President Writes …

This month has seen the long awaited ‘buried pipe’, which will allow candidates on the CP Course to carry out testing of instrumentation on a live piece of buried pipe, installed at the IMechE Training facility in Sheffield.     This has been a labour of love and frustration for many over a long period of time, but it is also a symbol of what can be achieved when two organizations with some very determined people put their heads together.  This will bring an enhanced learning experience for people attending CP training in Sheffield.  There has also been much time and effort put in by many in recent months looking at how we can be the best in class at the training we offer.

The other wonderful news this month is that we are now in possession of our new home, 5 Saxon Court Northampton.  My sincerest thanks go to Trevor Osborne for the hard and diligent work that he has put in to make this possible.  It has been the wish of Council for some time to see us in a permanent location and that has now been realised.  There are some changes that need to be made to the property, but we are looking at a move in date of November, and we would welcome a visit from you all.

I was lucky enough this month to have a tour of the Sir David Attenborough polar vessel just prior to the hull being launched, but the weather made it feel like a shipyard in Singapore rather than Birkenhead!

We have held productive PDTC and Council meetings, there is good progress being made in our efforts to provide up to date and interesting new courses, and you should see the results of this in coming months.  Council was as ever a lively debate with good progress being seen by the Membership committee.   I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bob Crundwell for his years of service to the Institute as a Past President and active role in the institute, Bob has decided to stand down from Council and we wish him all the best.

I hope you all continue to enjoy the summer.

Sarah Vasey, ICorr President