The branch closed its very successful 2016/2017 session with its annual Corrosion Awareness Day, which was well attended with 62 registrations supported by 6 excellent speakers providing a very successful, though very intense day, with many areas of corrosion introduced. This event was only made possible by the very generous sponsorship of Sherwin Williams together with all the Aberdeen Branch Sponsors.
Professor Paul Lambert (Mott MacDonald) provided a wonderful and gripping introduction to the day’s proceedings, outlining some key areas in the evolution of materials and corrosion control methods, as a background to other more specialised areas covered by the following speakers. Dr Carol Devine (ICR Integrity) followed with an amazing insight into the world of integrity wrecking bugs and how they can be controlled and detected, with some wonderful imagery that makes highly recommended viewing (https://sites.google.com/site/icorrabz/resource-center). Dr Nigel Owen (Aberdeen Foundries) gave us the view from the ‘Front Line’, as a busy foundry manager dealing with numerous metallurgical related casting issues, supplying the complex needs of the Cathodic Protection Industries, covering both Impressed Current and Sacrificial CP requirements and differing technologies.
After a well-earned break and some delicious catering provided by Palm Court, Sarah Vasey, ICorr President opened the afternoon CAD Session with a talk on the work of the Institute and its organisation. Malcolm Morris (Sherwin Williams) then gave us the 3 excellent insights into the world of corrosion mitigation by coatings, chemicals and materials selection with a strong practical bias and highlighted many relevant standards, recommended practices and legislation, essential to ensuring successful performance.
All this fitted very nicely into the final two talks by key Corrosion Management (CM) Specialists, Hooman Takhtechian (Oceaneering) who skilfully guided us into the concepts of CM, how it is geared to best utilising available resources, providing effective communications systems and the avoidance of risk to personnel, in often High Pressure / High Temperature operating environments. Dr Muhammad Ejaz (Plant Integrity Management) then wrapped up proceedings with a fascinating introduction to the world of Corrosion Modelling, its historical development and how it can be applied successfully today, which was coupled with a supporting presentation on Intrusive Corrosion Monitoring.
All in all, it was a very comprehensive training session of immense benefit that achieved its main objective of providing a most informative event at a very reasonable cost.
The Aberdeen Branch has further strengthened its management committee for 2017/2018 session and welcomes the following new members who will undoubtedly bring a wealth of new experiences and ideas to its work. Amir Attarchi (Senior Corrosion Engineer) at Oceaneering International, Dr Philip Enegela (Corrosion Engineer) at ATKINS Energy Division, Dr Nigel Owen (Manager) of Aberdeen Foundries Ltd, and Bryn Roberts (Managing Director) at ABR Engineering Consultants Ltd.
