Tuesday, March 12, 2013

All, Just wanted to update everyone on what is going to happen at CORROSION 2013. There will be an Arbitration Board meeting on Tuesday (March 19) afternoon with the TG 360 Chair, TG 360 Vice Chair, STG 35 Chair, TMG C2 Technical Coordinator and the four Appellants to discuss the revision process used in the last revision of the SP0169. No one knows what the decision is or what has been discussed. The TG 360 meeting will be Wednesday (March 20) from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. You can look up the location and room for the meeting on the CORROSION 2013 website or in the program at Orlando. Hopefully, we will find out the status of the revision at this time and whether it will go forward or be further delayed. My hope is that it will be allowed to go forward as it is written. If not it may require further revision and re-balloting. I hope many of you will get to come to CORROSION 2013. It should be a very good event with many great papers and committee meetings. There are so many committees and meeting now, that it is difficult to attend all that are valuable. I would like to invite you to Pipeline Coatings, Corrosion Control and Cathodic Protection symposium. I will be involved two presentations that will be given on Wednesday (March 20) in room 230A in the . One is "Understanding Mesh Backed Coating Systems and Non-Shielding". As many of you know this has been a hot topic for many in the industry who do not fully understand the process by which such a coating could have adequate dielectric strength and be non-shielding to CP at the same time. This paper will explain the process by which the mesh backed coating system is non-shielding to CP when disbondments occur and electrolyte is present between the coating and the substrate. Many have rejected tape type products as a rule because of the many CP shielding issues in the 70's and 80's because of disbonded solid film backed tapes and have thrown the mesh backed coating systems into this same category. This paper and presentation will give the evidence and testing that shows these products have proven track record of 25 years in service with no reported cases of measurable corrosion under the rare disbondments that have occurred when adequate CP is available. Hopefully, this will answer many questions and concerns about these types of coatings and maybe lead to industry testing to better determine the CP shielding characteristics of the various types of pipeline coatings. Hope you can make it and bring your questions and comments either at the meeting or come to the Polyguard booth and I will answer them there! The other paper that I am involved with is Rosen and is titled "EMAT, Pipe Coatings, Corrosion Control and CP Shielding". It will also discuss many of the issues surrounding disbonded coatings and the problems with CP shielding that can lead to external corrosion and stress corrosion cracking on cathodically protected pipelines. This paper will also be in room 230A and will be at 3:15 pm to 3:40 pm. This one may have been left off of the schedule, but it should be on the final program. This paper will address the use of the EMAT tool that not only finds SCC, but also finds disbonded coating and can for the most part distinguish the type of coating being used. This is some great information that will allow companies to be proactive instead of reactive to these problems. Once they know they have disbonded coating, they can correct the problem before SCC of external corrosion becomes a problem unless they know the coating is Non-shielding to CP. I think this is one of the greatest new technologies on the market. Hope to see everyone there and please come by the TG 360 committee meeting to see what is going on. Also, come by the Polyguard booth and visit. We now have a great two-part epoxy for those who refuse to use the RD-6 coating system or want to coat irregular shaped components like valves, fitting, girth welds or re-hab. Thanks for your time and effort through the years and let me know if I can help with your coatings and CP issues. Richard Norsworthy Polygaurd Products, Inc. NACE International Corrosion Specialist