Launch of New United Arab Emirates (UAE) Branch

Welcome

Welcome to the new UAE branch, in a very exciting period in the history of ICorr. We hope that our expanding corrosion community in the UK (and internationally) are all keeping well.

I am most happy to report that the ICorr UAE Branch officially launched on 6th May 2025 with an inaugural general meeting, which was followed up with an excellent technical presentation (online event).

During the AGM, an introduction to the ICorr and its vision for the future was presented.

The ICorr president inaugurated the branch with kind wishes and then set out his expectation for the branch to share knowledge and advance science and engineering in the prevention of corrosion for the public benefit in the Middle East. The ICorr President Dr Yunnan Gao proposed Dr Muhammad Ejaz as the first chairman for the UAE branch and Hooman Takhtechian as its first vice chair. Past ICorr President Stephen Tate seconded the proposal.

A large number of candidates have come forward in response to a branch survey, and a full UAE branch committee will be
formed over the coming months, and additional online events are being planned for later in 2025. Due to current requirements for non-profit institute registration with the chambers of commerce in the UAE, the team is planning to run only online events initially, to confirm the level of interest. The UAE Team will also incorporate expertise from Oman – Emmanuel Marcus, who will be Vice Chair for that section.

We also take this opportunity to welcome Amir Attarchi (above) as our Events Coordinator who previously provided excellent support to the ICorr Aberdeen Branch.

Technical Presentation

The technical presentation by Sarah Bagnall, Director of R-TECH Materials, showcased studies on failure analysis, highlighting an insight into forensic investigation explaining failure mechanisms and prevention. Sarah Bagnall has been involved with over 700 failure investigations and has broad experience with a wide range of engineering components, metallic and non-metallic materials, and industries and has extensive expertise in corrosion of a wide range of materials, particularly for the chemical processing and petrochemical industries.

Photo: UAE Branch Chair – Dr. Muhammad Ejaz, PhD, CEng FIMMM, FICorr.

Photo: Vice-Chair, Hooman Takhtechian, MSc CEng FICorr MIMMM.

Photo: Emmanuel Marcus,
C.Eng, FICorr, FIMMM.

Photo: Events Coordinator, Amir Attarchi, MSc, CEng, MICorr,
AMPP Corrosion Specialist.

Over the last 10 years, Sarah has developed specialist expertise in the corrosion and thermal degradation of austenitic stainless steels and is the ICorr presenter for the BSSA stainless steels course; refer to Corrosion Mechanisms in Stainless Steels – Institute of Corrosion. She is also the Chair of the Wales & South-West England branch for the ICorr that launched successfully in 2024.

Sarah strongly emphasised that determining the root cause of plant failures presents an opportunity to learn from the experience and that adopting such a philosophy is critical to the continual improvement of plant safety, performance, availability, and reliability whilst reducing maintenance costs. She added that conducting an effective Root Cause Analysis (RCA) investigation provides an avenue to understand and critically analyse all of the factors that have contributed towards a plant failure and failure mode. Sarah outlined the necessary steps for conducting a successful materials failure analysis with examples and discussed failure mechanisms which were encountered within the oil and gas industry. Several case studies relevant to the energy sector were also presented and discussed.

We do, of course, wish to acknowledge the support provided by ICorr HQ and our President and Past President for the successful start-up of the UAE branch following extensive research and planning. This report and where we are today represent the continuing commitment of the ICorr UAE Team, who bring their wide range of experience and contacts to the table at every meeting.

ICorr North-West Branch Hosts Joint Event with the Institute of Asset Management (IOM)

ICorr North-West Branch Hosts Joint Event with the Institute of Asset Management (IOM)

ICorr NW Branch held a joint meeting with the Institute of Asset Management at the University of Manchester on 1st April 2025. The event explored the theme of infrastructure asset failures, with speakers presenting various case studies—particularly highlighting the impact of corrosion to infrastructure.

Dave Champness  (Post-Graduate Researcher and Previous Water Industry Engineer) opened the session with a personal story related to asset management and aspects of corrosion in his talk “Concepts of Asset Management and How Corrosion Features”.  Paul Russell, Product Manager Concrete Repair and Composites at Mapei (UK) Ltd then spoke on product environmental sustainability, sharing case studies on extending the lifespan of structures in his presentation “Re-Lifing Structures to Extend Service”. Paul covered the carbon reduction gained in the products Mapei employs and also how they’ve sympathetically restored heritage buildings. Darren Henson (Workshop Manager at United Utilities) spoke about how corrosion can affect key assets such as pumps and the challenges of maintenance and prevention of shutdowns. Carlos Sanchez Senior Materials Scientist at The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) also contributed, using case studies to illustrate his presentation, “How Corrosion can Result in Catastrophic Asset Failure”.

This was a very well attended event that attracted many questions from the Audience.

Presentations

All presentations will be uploaded soon to: https://www.icorr.org/northwest/ under Local Technical Programme.

Forthcoming Events

UK-China Corrosion Summit – 3rd-4th September 2025

Institute of Corrosion National AGM – November 19th.

Planning continues for these exciting events. Further details will be released to the NW Branch website, mailing list and ICorr members in due course.

Future NW Branch Committee meetings are planned for:

• 12th August 2025

• 14th October 2025

If you would like to know more about our activities or become involved with the NW Branch, please contact: nwchair@Icorr.org

ICorr Midlands Update

ICorr Midlands Update

Annual General Meeting, DNV Facility Visit and AI Webinar on Corrosion Inspection.

The UK Midlands branch officially commenced its 2025 activities with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on 28th April, attended by ICorr President Dr. Yunnan Gao.

Annual General Meeting

The ICorr Midlands Chair, Dr. Prafull Sharma, introduced the new committee volunteers, who were formally approved to commence their roles. Strategic priorities for the year were set. A key focus is expanding engagement with academia to promote student membership. The committee chair also emphasised collaboration with other professional societies, aligning with ICorr’s broader strategy for mutual growth and knowledge exchange. As part of the new strategy, the branch will also host subject-specific webinars, such as the timely topic of AI application in corrosion and inspection management on 16th April.

Uzma Anjum (DNV) will oversee the branch’s online events
and webinars.

Other committee roles include:

Ali Oskuie (Worley): Committee Secretary

Louis Ramdall (Premtech): Coordinator for in-person events

Ben Knight (Premtech): Social media and digital communications

The committee will also benefit from the continued support of Bill Whittaker, former Midlands Chair, whose experience will help guide strategic decisions.

DNV Facility Visit

Screenshot

Coinciding with the 2025 AGM, the committee and guests participated in a technical visit to DNV’s Loughborough facility. Attendees from both academia and industry took part in the event, gaining valuable insights into DNV’s operations in the field of failure and root cause analysis. The Midlands branch extends its appreciation to DNV for hosting both the visit and the AGM.

Attendees participated in a guided tour of the facility, where they observed firsthand the sophisticated techniques and methodologies used in root cause and failure investigations.
The lab showcased a variety of real-world case studies, including failures in gas pipelines and components from the energy sector. These samples illustrated the complexity of determining failure causes, which often involve a blend of technical, managerial, and communication-related factors.

The visit also included a series of technical presentations, highlighting DNV’s multidisciplinary approach to integrity management across the renewable, hydrocarbon, and electricity sectors. The sessions offered deeper insights into how engineering expertise, forensic analysis, and risk assessment converge to support industry resilience and safety.

The ICorr Midlands committee extends its sincere appreciation to DNV, especially Uzma Anjum and Kathryn Thomas, for their generous hospitality and for making the event a rich learning experience for all. Events like this reinforce the importance of cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing in the evolving field of corrosion and asset integrity.

Webinar on AI Application in Corrosion Management

The branch hosted a well-attended webinar titled “AI-Powered Digital Corrosion Inspection and Coating Survey”, presented by Kashif Salim (Abyss Solutions). This session explored Abyss Solutions’ advanced system, which integrates high-precision data collection tools—such as 3D scanning—with AI algorithms to assess and prioritise corrosion risks, particularly in offshore piping systems. The topic resonated with online attendees, generating many audience questions and highlighting the growing importance of digital tools in asset integrity management.

This was the second webinar on the application of the AI in corrosion management. The Midlands branch plans to continue offering webinars on high-interest topics and will soon release its annual webinar calendar.

Further Contacts

www.linkedin.com/posts/icorr-midlands_corrosion-materialsscience-engineering-activity-7312949751820267520-FSzp/ and see the ICorr Events Calendar at: www.icorr.org/events/

Interested members can also subscribe to the branch’s YouTube channel to access recordings of past webinars at:
www.youtube.com/@ICORRMidlands

All event slide packs are available in the Midlands Branch web page at: Midlands Branch – Institute of Corrosion under Local Technical Programme.

For all other inquiries and membership / sponsorship opportunities, please contact the Branch Chair
Dr. Prafull Sharma at: midlandschair@icorr.org

London Updates

London Updates

The branch held a technical meeting together with TWI on 10th April, when Mr John Thomson, Director – SeaShield, Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd., presented “An innovative approach to offshore, subsea pipeline field joint protection.”

John has worked for Winn & Coales for nearly 15 years. A mechanical engineer, he has been involved in both commercial and technical operations with the company. He oversees the technical and commercial aspects of the systems the company supplies for marine and major pipeline projects.

The presentation described the protection of the field joints for two subsea sour-rated carbon steel pipelines, an 18 km run of 254 mm (10”) diameter pipe and a 22 km run of 304.8 mm (12”) diameter, both designed to operate at a temperature of 109° C, and covered the testing and approval of the system and the application of the system during production.

John began by explaining which system is typically used, Heat Shrink Sleeves (HSS), due to their good mechanical properties (bond strength, resistance to damage  and high operating temperature) and equivalence to 3LPE and 3LPP main pipe systems, plus good installation time and a well understood system.  However, he then explained the downside of such a system, hot working needed, strict temperature and surface preparation requirements, and the time taken to repair any damage. He then described the application of FJCs offshore, and noted that the typical critical path on the lay barge is usually welding the joints, however the FJC can also be a critical path due to the need for surface preparation, heating and cooling, and repair, hence the need for an innovative system to reduce the time taken to coat a joint.

This is where viscoelastic coatings (as per ISO 21809-3, Type 13) come to the fore. These can be applied as a roll or sheet, with mechanical protection provided by a polymer mesh or similar material.

The actual system applied on this project was: one viscoelastic layer (1.8 mm), two layers of polyethylene compression wrap (0.38 mm), glass reinforced resin (0.28 mm per layer), finally, one layer of polymer mesh (6 mm).

John then showed details of application, and the results of pre-qualification tests, and described the benefits of this type
of system:

• Safety – no blasting, no hot work

• Cost effectiveness – no blasting, no heating

• Efficiency – multiple steps concurrently, no PU infill

•FJC off critical path – fast pipelay rate, low repair rate (number of repairs and time of repair

Finally, John summerised the key performance highlights from the use of the novel offshore field joint coating system on this project, including:

•Achieving a record 1,766 hours free of Lost Time Injury (LTI) during the FJC operation.

•Averaging 200 to 290 Field Joint Coating (FJC) joints per day for the 304.8mm and the 254 mm diameter pipelines respectively, with a peak of 305 joints per day.

• Production application time of less than 5 minutes per joint.

•One of the lowest industry repair rates of 0.28% and 0.07% for the 304.8 mm and 254 mm diameter pipelines respectively. Averaging 0.19% for the entire project versus the KPI of 5%.

•Realising further cost savings by eliminating the need for PU infill foam on concrete weight joints.

After an interesting Q and A, the chair, Paul Books, presented John with an ICorr pen, as thanks for his presentation.

The branch held two social events for members and their partners on 8th May, the final event of the
24/25 season.

First was a guided walk through Highgate Cemetery, London, where many well-known people are buried, including Michael Faraday, who discovered the principles behind the electric motor and the link between light and magnetism – well known to people in our industry, Karl Marx, the German political philosopher and revolutionary socialist, and the singer George Michael and his family.  The guide explained the history  of the cemetery, before the small group of members were taken on a tour, and the significance of the different grave stones were explained, and also the resting places of other notable people, eg the Mears family, who owned the Whitechapel Bell foundry which produced the “Big Ben” bell and the first Liberty Bell.  The group were also shown round the Terrace Catacombs, before visiting the resting places of Faraday and Marx.

The second event was a Blue Badge guided walk around Paddington basin, now known as Paddington Central.

Our guide, Ingrid, who we have used over many years for these walks, described the new neighbourhood, centred around the restored canal, once a major hub as the result of the industrial revolution. Now gleaming office blocks and new (expensive) apartments overlook the old quayside, with landscaped public spaces, artworks, and social venues.

The Brunel building , a 17-storey office complex, was constructed with sustainability in mind, resulting in a lowering of its carbon footprint. It has a BREEAM “Excellent” and LEED “Gold” ratings.

The area is also connected with several groundbreaking people, e.g., Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, and Roger Bannister, who was the first to break the 4-minute mile barrier; both worked at St Mary’s Hospital, which overlooks the area. There are also links to “The Paddington Bear” character author, Michael Bond, and Alan Turing, the ‘father’ of modern computer science, who cracked the Enigma code during WW2.

Finally, the walk ended at a pub in Bayswater for much needed refreshments and a meal.

ICorr London offers an extensive range of activities.

Abstracts are welcome now for consideration for the 2025-2026 Technical Programme. Interested presenters and those wishing to be added to the mailing list can contact: londonchair@icorr.org

ICorr India Update

ICorr India Update

ICorr India is pleased to share that the branch has an exciting year of technical engagement ahead. We have curated a list of distinguished speakers who will deliver expert talks in our upcoming technical sessions, covering a broad range of topics relevant to corrosion science
and engineering.

In addition to these sessions, we are planning to organise a focused workshop and hands-on training programmes aimed at enhancing practical skills and industry readiness among professionals and students.

The following online technical programme was conducted on 27th May, 2025.

Design and Development of Advanced Inline Inspection (ILI) Tools for Oil and Gas Pipelines.

Speaker: Mr Bhuvanesh Kumar Sharma

Mr Bhuvanesh Kumar Sharma isthe Managing Director of VDT Pipeline Integrity Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a technology-driven start-up based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
An accomplished TEDx speaker and passionate technologist, he brings expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning,
Big Data, IoT, and Data Analysis to the pipeline integrity sector. Under his leadership, VDT Pipeline Integrity Solutions has emerged as a pioneering venture, winning the prestigious Avinya Energy Startup Challenge in both 2023 and 2024. With a strong background in senior management and corporate strategy, Mr Sharma has steered the company toward innovative, data-driven solutions that enhance pipeline safety and efficiency. His vision blends cutting-edge technology with practical industry needs, positioning the company at the forefront of pipeline integrity management. Mr Sharma continues to contribute to technological advancement in the energy sector through his leadership, public speaking, and commitment to innovation.

Synopsis: The design and development of advanced Inline Inspection (ILI) tools are essential for maintaining the structural integrity and operational safety of oil and gas pipelines. These tools are engineered to travel internally through pipelines and are equipped with sensors that detect various defects such as corrosion, cracks, deformations, and weld anomalies. Modern ILI tools utilise technologies including Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL), allowing for precise and comprehensive pipeline evaluation.

Innovations focus on enhancing sensor resolution, tool miniaturisation for complex geometries, and integration with real-time data processing systems. With the increasing application of artificial intelligence and machine learning, ILI data analysis has become more efficient and predictive, supporting proactive maintenance strategies. These advancements minimise the
risk of environmental hazards, system failures, and costly downtimes, making ILI tools critical assets in the pipeline integrity management ecosystem.

The following online technical programme was conducted on 10th June, 2025:

Smart Corrosion Management: Integrating Digital Solutions for a Corrosion-Resistant Future

Speaker: Dr G. H. Thanki

Dr G. H. Thanki is a renowned expert in corrosion science with over 45 years of experience, including 15 years in senior advisory roles. He served as Head of the GSFC Research Centre and was a consultant to the World Bank, UNESCO, and global industries. He introduced innovative corrosion control strategies such as real-time monitoring, MOC life cycle analysis, and effluent quality control.

A prolific educator, Dr Thanki initiated the PG Diploma in Corrosion Technology at M.S. University of Baroda and guided several postgraduate and doctoral students. He has conducted training for over 80 corporates and led corrosion audits across sectors like power, petrochemicals, and solar energy. He has received multiple honours including the NACE Lifetime Achievement Award and the Indian Achievers Award. A founding member of the CII Corrosion Management Committee (24) CII Corrosion Management Division: Overview | https://www.linkedin.com/company/cii.in/?originalSubdomain=in, Dr Thanki remains a leading voice in advancing corrosion management practices globally.

Synopsis: Smart corrosion management harnesses cutting-edge digital technologies like IoT sensors, AI/ML, data analytics, and digital twins to predict, monitor, and control corrosion. This approach enables real-time condition assessment, proactive maintenance, and optimised asset performance. By shifting from reactive to predictive strategies, organisations can reduce downtime, extend asset life, enhance safety, and cut operational costs. Digital twins further support simulation-based decision-making for design and maintenance. Proven through industry case studies, smart corrosion management offers transformative benefits across sectors such as infrastructure, power, and process industries. Effective implementation involves strategic asset identification, data integration, and predictive modelling—positioning organisations for greater efficiency, resilience, and sustainability in asset integrity management.

India Branch – Additional Information: For continuing professional development (CPD) or to join our mailing list, please email: INDIAchair@icorr.org

ICorr Central Scotland Updates

ICorr Central Scotland Updates

The Central Scotland Branch had two excellent events in March and April which extended its technical reach and attracted attendees from outside its catchment. Both events were very well attended and covered fascinating and somewhat enigmatic topics – Passive Fire Protection and Internal Linings. The Branch Committee also held a steering meeting on 24th April 2025
to plan for future events, chief among which is an exhibition in June 2025.

On 26th March 2025, Carboline’s Srijith Nair captivated the audience by delving deep into the world of Passive Fire Protection. Leveraging over 20 years’ technical experience in the domain, Srijith gave a detailed presentation on the topic “PFP – The Benefits of Blending Organic and Inorganic Technology”. He provided insights on the state of the art regarding PFP and explained how new technologies are providing fire protection on assets.

April’s technical meeting further deepened attendees’ knowledge of coatings and linings. Simon Daly, a Coatings Consultant at Safinah Ltd. with 35 years’ industry experience, delivered a seminal presentation on “Selection of internal coatings for pressure vessels” on 30th April 2025. Simon’s presentation covered the chemistry of internal linings, discussed testing protocols and provided a preview on the publication of a new standard on internal linings.

Simon Daly explaining challenges in Applying International Linings to Process Vessels