Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Update on appeal process

Just a quick update on the SP0169-2007 revision. The document is with the three members of the Appeal Panel set up by the TCC Chair. They did meet at CTW, but this of course is a closed meeting. The hope is that there will be decision soon from this Panel. I am not sure who is on the Appeal Panel. Everyone is hoping for a decision before the end of the year so the TG 360 committee can complete the document and get it out to the industry. I believe that it is a much stronger and better document than in the past and will truly help the industry. No such standard will ever be perfect or meet every ones needs, but this one if allowed to go forward is (I think) the best one so far. There will be two articles coming out in Materials Performance (October and November) about the Electro Magnetic Acoustic Transducer technology that I helped to author with some wonderful folks from Rosen. Unlike some of the other EMAT tools that only find SCC this one can also find disbonded coating and identify the type of coating on the line because of the number of sensors they use in their tools. As with any relatively new technology, it is improving each day, but now offers a great opportunity for companies to locate disbonded coatings before they become a problem. Remember, most of the external corrosion problems we have on pipelines occur under disbonded coatings that shield CP. SCC is nearly always (if not always) found under disbonded coatings that shield CP. Most MIC problems on external surfaces of pipelines are under disbonded coatings that shield CP. These articles are short version of the paper C2012-0001673 we presented at CORROSION 2012. We are writing a follow up paper for CORROSION 2013. There will also be an article in the October edition World Pipelines that will discuss the importance of understanding the pipeline coatings that we use and how they work with CP if disbondments occur. The industry is finally paying more attention to this serious problem. If something changes on SP0169 I will alert you as soon as I know anything further. Hope all is well with everyone and let me know if I can help in any way by giving advice on pipeline coatings, etc. Polyguard and I want to thank all of you for the support and effort over these years of struggling to complete the SP0169 revision. We have a much better document, if it is allowed to go forward. If not we will just continue to make it the best we can for the world's pipeline and related industries! Richard Norsworthy We believe in using non-shielding pipeline coatings! Go the Polyguardproducts.com website for more information about shielding and non-shielding pipeline coatings.