CORROSION NEWS - AUGUST 2001

Past Pipeline Tragedies May Cost Equilon - School Board Demands Pipe Replacement

Russians Visit Hanford for Waste Advice

Bodycote to Unveil Two New Coating Processes for Aluminium

Powder Coatings Growth Rates Predicted

Russian "Cold Spray" Under US Development for Automotives

Japan to Investigate SCC in BWR's

Motiva "Emergency" Over, But Investigations Continue

Corrosion Concerns for Sunken Kursk

Corrosion Responsible for 59% Pipe Failure Rate - Canadian Board Reports

USAF Gets to Grips With Ageing Aircraft Problem

From Shirts to Ships - New Laser Treatment Improves Materials

Judge Demands Records in Lawsuit Over Boy's Death

Tungsten Carbide/Cobalt for Electro-Discharge Machining

Racing Slicks Go Non-Stick

Southland Water, LA Approves $1.6million to Reduce Corrosion

Korea Adopts US Eco-Friendly Plating Technqiue

WD-40: The Irresistible Appeal of a Corrosion-Resistant

New Coating for Steel Extends Corrosion Protection

A Year on From Carlsbad Tragedy, Pipeline Safety Measures Taken

Inhibitor Cuts Corrosion in Domestic Water Pipes - Residents Seek Settlement with County

OPS Supports Validation of Pipeline Corrosion Assessment Services

Governor Puts Pressure on Motiva - "Agree to Plan or Close Refinery" Officials Told

Titan and Atlas to be Restored to Former Glory

"Hot" Metal Cool for The Coming Season - Copper Crowned on the Catwalk

From Soda Pop to Auto Shop - Aluminum Benefits Convince Automakers

INEEL wins award for super-hard steel

Bhopal Lessons Learned - Safety Top Priority for New Gas Pipes - Bill Passed

Clean Air Strategy Denounced as "Subsidy" for Mid-West Corn Farmers

Russians Reject Japanese Steel in Favor of Domestic Pipes

Man Missing, Presumed Dead - Government Department Misled on Corrosion Repair

Bridge Corrosion Problems - Is Carbon Fiber the Solution ?

Duplex Steel Reduces Maintenance Cost for Middle East Sewage System

$140million Statue - Client Demands 1,000-year Guarantee

ISO 12944 - First Global Standard for Coatings

Up to $19billion Lawsuit Brought Against Koch - Lawyers' "Percentage" Questioned

'Peek' Power Now in Powder

Tantalum Set to Overtake Electronics Industry

High Impermeability Film Developed

Aluminum Hits the Road - A Potted History from 19th Century Novelty to 21st Century Engineering

$650,000 Loss at National Landmark - Local Businesses Also Affected

$10million Lawsuit Filed Against Aircraft Maintenance Company - FAA Also Investigating

Acid Dip Beneficial for Replacement Hip

Aluminium Sludge Recycled for Automobile Production

Northwest Stands By 30 Year-Old Fleet: DC-9's are Tops

PAST PIPELINE TRAGEDIES MAY COST EQUILON - SCHOOL BOARD DEMANDS PIPE REPLACEMENT  top

Bernalillo school officials want Equilon Pipeline Co. LLC to replace a pipeline that runs across the Sandias and through Placitas and Bernalillo. The school board passed a resolution Aug. 16 asking Equilon to replace its pipeline from south of Moriarty to north of Bernalillo. The pipeline runs within 200 feet of Placitas Elementary School, which is part of the school district. Equilon owns the nearly 50-year-old pipeline but has not used it for about three years. Company officials say they plan to refurbish the 16-inch pipeline and run refined products such as diesel, gasoline and jet fuel from Odessa, Texas, to terminals at Moriarty and Bloomfield. But pipeline safety advocates say refurbishing the line will not make it safe. They want the segment of the pipeline that runs through populated areas to be replaced before it can be used again. The school board also joined the activist group in requesting that Equilon provide all available information about the internal and external condition of the old pipeline. Equilon officials have said it is not necessary or economically feasible to replace the pipeline from Moriarty to Bernalillo. After an explosion of an El Paso Natural Gas pipeline near Carlsbad killed 12 people in August 2000, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management changed its requirements and said Equilon must do an environmental impact statement, a detailed study requiring approval from several government agencies, before the line can be refurbished and go into operation. When Equilon first proposed putting the line back into operation last year, the BLM said it would need only an environmental assessment, a less-detailed study requiring only BLM approval. Equilon officials have said the more intensive study will probably mean a delay in the construction of a tank farm and distribution terminal planned for south of Moriarty. Equilon has been under fire recently after incidents involving pipelines in which the company has ownership interest. A November 1998 explosion at an Equilon-owned refinery in Anacortes, Wash., killed six workers. The company was cited with safety violations and inadequate training of its employees. In June 1999 the Olympic pipeline, another pipeline owned in part by Equilon, exploded in Bellingham, Wash., killing three youths. The Office of Pipeline Safety, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has said Olympic was managed by Equilon at the time of the explosion. The office also determined that required inspections uncovered "anomalies" that may have led to the explosion, but the problems were never repaired. It fined Equilon $3.05 million, the largest civil fine in the office's history. Equilon is appealing the decision and disputing its role as operator of Olympic.

RUSSIANS VISIT HANFORD FOR WASTE ADVICE  top

Russian officials have toured the formerly top-secret Hanford nuclear reservation to study how their U.S. counterparts store dangerous scrap from decommissioned nuclear submarines. The United States is burying 96 of its old reactor compartments from nuclear submarines in a trench at Hanford. Russia stores its 52 reactor compartments by floating them in bays in the Pacific and Arctic oceans; some for more than 20 years. The visitors commented that this is a "temporary" form of storage until they can establish storage along the lines of that used at Hanford. During a two-day visit that ended yesterday, the Russians exchanged technical information at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, toured the burial trench at central Hanford and watched heavy-equipment demonstrations. There are concerns that with corrosion, the Russian reactor compartments could take on enough water to sink and contaminate ocean water. The goal, the Russian officials said, is to provide information to help Russia devise a plan to store its reactor compartments on land. Eventually, international funding for the project is expected to come from countries concerned about the environmental risk, such as nearby Norway. Russian atomic-energy officials estimate their country's favored plan would cost about $80 million. At present, Russia removes spent fuel and liquid and solid waste, then welds the nuclear compartments closed. The sealed compartments are tethered to a pier, many of them in Saida Bay near the Arctic Circle. It's a hostile environment with salt water that can cause corrosion and ice that can break the moorings of the huge reactor compartments. Each compartment is as tall as a three-story building. Some of Russia's nuclear compartments are from submarines that have grown too old to operate. It's those compartments, some 35 years old, that are at particular risk of sinking. The United States is the only nation with long-term experience in storing submarine reactor compartments on land. Here, nuclear submarines are scrapped at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton. The reactor compartments, minus their spent fuel, are floated by barge to the Columbia River and up to the Port of Benton. They're placed on a 30- by 60-foot "land transporter" to be pulled by large tractors for the 25-mile trip to the burial trench. The trench, which eventually will be covered, is more than 50 feet deep and about the size of two football fields. However, burial is not an option in the frozen earth of northern Russia. Instead, Russia will have to come up with a system to lift the compartments from the bay and store them above ground. Russia will present its plan for permanent storage this fall at an international seminar.

BODYCOTE TO UNVEIL TWO NEW COATING PROCESSES FOR ALUMINIUM  top

Bodycote Nussbaum is set to unveil two new processes aimed at improving the capabilities of functional coatings for aluminium. CompCote is a polymer aluminium oxide composite coating with resistance to wear and corrosion superior than that of current anodised and hard anodised coatings. The material features the same bending fatigue strength of the base material and higher fracture toughness. It can be used as a base layer for bonding agents and paints. The second coating, Nucotec HE-S, is an improved anodised coating material displaying superior low friction attributes and high resistance to corrosion and wear.

POWDER COATINGS GROWTH RATES PREDICTED  top

The powder coatings market is predicted to grow by 4% in Europe, 8% in Pacific Asia and 6% in North America. The growth rates have been determined based on 2000 figures. Automotive applications in Europe are anticipated to post the highest growth at 11% while domestic appliances are predicted to grow by 7%. Coil coatings, MDF substrates and corrosion protection are some of the marketing opportunities being considered.

RUSSIAN "COLD SPRAY" UNDER US DEVELOPMENT FOR AUTOMOTIVES  top

"Cold Spray", developed in Siberia in 1984, involves the coating materials being applied when they are at or near room temperature. Specifically, the coating particles are at from 0 deg C to 700 deg C, below their melting temperature. A more appropriate name might be "Fast Spray" because the spraying occurs such that the 10- to 50-micron particles are traveling at a velocity of 500 to 1,500 meters per second when they hit the substrate that is consequently coated. Research on the application of Cold Spray is underway at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, where there is a consortium of companies involved. It includes Alcoa; DaimlerChrysler; Ford Motor; The Jacobs Chuck Manufacturing Co.; Pratt & Whitney; Praxair; Siemens/ Westinghouse; Ktech Corp. The last-named company, which is based in Albuquerque, was established in 1971 as a research and engineering Prm to study nuclear weapons effects. Subsequently, It has widened Its areas of interest such that it employs Dr. Anatol!i Papyrin, who holds the patent for the cold gas spray process. Apparently, when the metal particles (metals that can be used Include iron, stainless steel, nickel, copper, aluminum, molybdenum, titanium, and various alloys) hit the metallic or dielectric substrate, there is a disruption of the thin metal-oxide films on the surfaces of both the particles and the substrate so that there Is intimate contact of the materials at an atomic level. The advantage of this approach as compared with the more common thermal (i.e. arc or flame processes) spray method is that the various effects that can be caused by high heat (e.g., oxidation, vaporization, residual stresses, debonding, gas release) are avoided. There are a variety of purposes that this method can be deployed for, such as strengthening/hardening; providing wear resistance; providing corrosion resistance; metalizing plastics; joining, or sealing, parts; and providing electrical insulation for metals, ceramics, plastics. According to a Sandia researcher, Cold Spray has some significant advantages as a coating and fabrication tool, and it provides capabilities not previously possible. It's a new enough technology that we don't yet know all the possible applications, but it has the potential to make truly revolutionary changes in the way some products are manufactured. One of the evident application areas for automotive is in coating cylinder bores. Another is to deposit layers of conductive metals onto substrates for use in underhood automotive electronics.

JAPAN TO INVESTIGATE SCC IN BWR'S  top

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will order the inspection of 28 boiling water reactors used to generate power by six companies in Japan, following the discovery of a crack in a fuel unit of the reactor core at a power station in Fukushima Prefecture in early July, ministry sources said August 24. On July 6, nuclear safety officials in Fukushima Prefecture announced the discovery of a crack in a wall, called a shroud, that covers fuel within the No. 3 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daini nuclear power station. Following an investigation by Tokyo Electric Power, the ministry's nuclear safety division assumed the damage is so-called stress corrosion cracking, common to all boiling water reactors like one at the Fukushima power station. Since the reactor in question is made of stainless metal considered resistant to such cracking, the ministry's nuclear safety officials believe the crack could have been due to the way the shroud was manufactured and inspection at other nuclear power stations is thus necessary. Tokyo Electric Power said despite the crack, the shroud is still strong. But for extra safety, a step to reinforce the shroud will be taken. The six companies are Tokyo Electric Power, Tohoku Electric Power Co., Chubu Electric Power Co., Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Chugoku Electric Power Co. and Japan Atomic Power Co.

MOTIVA "EMERGENCY" OVER, BUT INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE  top

The chemical-spill emergency at Motiva Enterprises is over 39 days after an acid-tank collapse and fire that killed one person and injured eight, federal and state officials have declared. The emergency phase of the operation was terminated after Motiva removed the last few thousand gallons of acid from five damaged tanks left standing at the accident site, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Vance Evans said August 24. Officials shut down an emergency information and operations center at the refinery Friday evening, but accident investigation and hazardous-waste cleanup work will continue under close government oversight. Eight workers were injured in the July 17 sulfuric acid-tank accident, which now ranks as Delaware's worst chemical emergency. Contract boilermaker Jeff Davis, 50, of Fairless Hills, Pa., has been missing since the accident and is presumed dead. A company spokesman said that workers have found no sign of the missing man, but will continue searching until someone tells them to stop. As much as 1 million gallons of sulfuric acid spilled during the collapse and fire, which polluted the Delaware River, killing thousands of fish. In the past three weeks, Motiva has been pumping spent and fresh sulfuric acid from five tanks that survived the accident, using tanker trucks and railcars, although officials could not provide an exact accounting of spilled and recovered acid. One week after the accident, Motiva admitted that the tank that collapsed and burned had a history of leaks and corrosion and was overdue for an inspection and repair.

CORROSION CONCERNS FOR SUNKEN KURSK  top

The radiation level was normal in samples from the seabed, water and air in the area where the Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kursk sank a year ago, says a summary of the Norwegian Radiation Service's report. On August 20 a remotely controlled Norwegian vessel took initial samples, the summary says. What radionuclides were found in the seabed, water and air did not originate in the submarine's reactor. They are natural and their amounts do not exceed the natural level of the Barents Sea, it says. The samples taken by divers at work on the submarine showed a radiation level no higher than the admissible one, the summary says. This suggests that nuclear fuel has not leaked since the disaster. The reactor has stopped and not been flooded with contaminated water. Still, the experts insist that ecological monitoring should continue for as long as the submarine is on the seafloor. Nobody can be absolutely sure that the submarine's reactor is not damaged and that there will be no leakage because, if the Kursk stays where it is now, corrosion will destroy the reactor sooner or later, the summary says. The Kursk sank on August 12, 2000. All 118 crewmembers died in the disaster.

CORROSION RESPONSIBLE FOR 59% PIPE FAILURE RATE - CANADIAN BOARD REPORTS  top

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board saw an increase in corrosion failures on oil and gas pipelines in the province during the past year, according to the board's recently released Field Surveillance Provincial Summary for 2000-2001. Most of the corrosion-related leaks were on sweet gas pipeline systems in southeastern Alberta, the report said. Internal corrosion was to blame for 59% of pipeline failures during the period from April 1, 2000, to March 31. The board said it has formed a corrosion team to review requirements and examine all opportunities for avoiding corrosion-related incidents in the future. The number of pipeline ruptures fell, however, from 44 in 1999-2000 to 39 in 2000-2001. Of the total of 855 pipeline incidents last year, 89.6% were leaks, 4.1% were ruptures and 6.3% were hits that did not result in a release, the EUB said. The report said the decrease in the number of priority one releases -- ones that require an immediate response -- is attributed to the province requiring the use of sensitive leak detection systems, automated shut-in equipment and pipeline patrols from the air and on the ground. Only 1.7% of the pipeline releases were classified as priority one, the EUB said.

For more information on the report, visit www.eub.gov.ab.ca.

USAF GETS TO GRIPS WITH AGEING AIRCRAFT PROBLEM  top

The US Air Force (USAF) is grappling with how to counter the effects of age on its aircraft. It believes it must bring together innovative technologies, better predictive capabilities and new business and management approaches to counter the growing financial and logistical burden to keep its aircraft flying. The service's fleet of 6,300 aircraft has an average platform age of 22 years, in many cases meeting or exceeding the platform's intended service life. Of the 33 different aircraft types, some like the B-52 bomber and KC-135 tanker, have been in the fleet almost 50 years. USAF commented that older aircraft are simply more difficult to maintain as mechanical failures become less predictable, repairs become more complicated, and parts become harder to come by and more expensive. Repairing fuel leaks, for example, requires about 217,000 hours of labour annually in the service's depot. In some cases, the USAF has to repair or replace components on certain platforms that were expected to last the full life of the aircraft and were not designed with replacement in mind. Even if the USAF carries out all of its planned modernisation programmes, like the F-22 Raptor air- superiority fighter and Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) which would yield about 100 aircraft annually in coming years, the average aircraft age will continue to rise to almost 30 years by 2020. Individual aircraft programme offices will be coordinated to identify areas of common interest in which they can leverage funding. Also, the USAF scientific and user communities will be brought together to allow for a smoother transition of technologies into aircraft programmes. One study will assess the potential gains in mitigating corrosion and fatigue through a greater use of composite materials in place of current components. USAF commented that a key driver in reducing an aircraft's time in depot is to achieve a better understanding of corrosion and its impact on a structure's integrity. Today's general approach is to repair any corroded part that is found while an aircraft is in depot, which often significantly extends its time out of action. Better understanding and predictive capabilities would enable the depots to address only those corroded parts that require immediate attention, allowing the aircraft to re-enter service more quickly. The depot can then monitor the emerging corrosion, order the long-lead replacement parts ahead of time and be better prepared to correct it the next time the aircraft arrives for service. New non-destructive evaluation technologies, like the AFRL's Mobile Automated Scanner IV system that can 'see' through an aircraft's skin to find corrosion without the need to rip open the aircraft, are emerging tools that will increase the ease and efficiency of inspection.

FROM SHIRTS TO SHIPS - NEW LASER TREATMENT IMPROVES MATERIALS  top

From improved clothing to ship hulls that better withstand corrosion, the free electron laser (FEL) under development at Jefferson Lab could transform a number of industries. As it develops its high-energy FEL, Jefferson Lab is working closely with several corporate partners to develop uses for its laser in industry. The planned upgrades to the laser, first to 10 kilowatts (kw) and then to 100 within several years is intended, in part, to better position the FEL for industrial applications. If all goes according to plan, the FEL at JLab will reach 100 kw by the end of 2005. At 100 kw, companies should be able to use FELs to produce "market-quantity runs of material" which will enable assessment of economic viability for such products. In one case, the lab is working with DuPont on the treatment of nylon fibers. Although nylon is strong, lasts a long time, and holds its shape, it is not currently an attractive alternative to natural fibers for most clothing because it doesn't "breathe" and water beads off of it. The problem is that on a microscopic scale, nylon fibers are smooth while natural fibers are rough. On a macroscopic level, the natural fibers feel soft, but on a microscopic level their roughness offers nooks and crannies for dyes to settle in as well for water to be absorbed. But if nylon cloth is exposed to infrared light at the right wavelength, the energy of the laser creates nooks and crannies that appear like those in natural fibers while the nylon retains its unique good properties. Scientists at JLab are testing the procedure now, but need a power boost to show that they can produce it at a commercial rate. Although the JLab FEL currently only produces infrared light, part of the planned upgrade will allow it to also produce ultraviolet (UV) light. The lab is also working with DuPont on a process of exposing nylon to a specific wavelength of UV, at which it causes amide groups to appear, or molecular clusters that kill bacteria. With amides sitting above the surface of the nylon, when bacteria lands on it, that bacteria will be killed. The fiber would retain that anti-microbial property forever. The hope is to use the process to make hospital gowns that reduce the chance for infection and a potential food wrap that could better fight spoilage. The FEL can also alter steel, melting its very surface in a way that removes the grain boundaries there. JLab is working with Newport News Shipbuilding to use the process to improve steel's resistance to corrosion, which usually attacks those grain boundaries in the metal of a ship. If a ship's hull were treated with the laser process, Jlab claims it could last three to five times longer.

JUDGE DEMANDS RECORDS IN LAWSUIT OVER BOY'S DEATH  top

Reliant Energy-Arkla and its parent company will have to provide information about its natural gas lines in a lawsuit claiming the utility was responsible for an explosion that killed a 4-year-old boy, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes issued the order at the request of attorneys for Farah Flemons, whose son, Jadarian Woodberry, was killed when an explosion and fire occurred at the Prescott home the two were moving into Oct. 2. Flemons also was injured. The state Public Service Commission has said the explosion and fire were caused by natural gas leakage from a pipe connecting natural gas service to the residence. Attorneys for Flemons claim the utility and its parent company, Houston Industries Inc., knew or should have known that their natural gas service lines were in poor condition at the time of the explosion.

At the request of Reliant lawyers, the judge limited the scope of the plaintiff's inquiry into the condition of Reliant's infrastructure to the period from Oct. 1, 1996, to July 1 of last year and to a five-mile radius of the Prescott residence. Under the order, the utility and its parent company will have to make available a wealth of information including documents under a 1998 PSC protective order that relate to the condition of pipes, cathodic protection or corrosion of pipe, and third party studies or analyses of the gas system in Prescott, and statewide if the pipes in Prescott are mentioned. Reliant Energy argued that the information was protected by attorney-client privilege and as attorney work product. But the judge also ordered the company to disclose leak survey maps, service line leak records, cathodic protection maps, corrosion surveys, location maps of rectifiers and anodes, location maps of test points, documents concerning cathodic protection of all gas distribution pipe, inventory maps and related documents, pressure monitoring documents, maps of all gas lines, documents concerning coupling locations and repairs, and field diagrams related to the service pipe. In addition, the judge told the utility to provide records supporting its theories of what caused the explosion. He gave them until Aug. 27 to comply.

TUNGSTEN CARBIDE/COBALT FOR ELECTRO-DISCHARGE MACHINING  top

Plansee Tizit of Germany has developed Tungsten carbide/cobalt material particularly for corrosion resistance during electro-discharge machining. This material, combined with a small amount of chromium, provides corrosion resistance that is 80 times better than ordinary material. Cobalt can also be modified by adding small amounts of copper, palladium, germanium and rhenium.

Website www.rareearthsmarketplace.com.

RACING SLICKS GO NON-STICK  top

Although it's not likely you'll be frying steaks on the wheels of your car, a newly developed Teflon coated wheel slated for release next spring will hopefully make cleaning them less of a chore. Los Angeles based custom wheel manufacturer American Racing Equipment Inc., recently announced an exclusive agreement with the DuPont Corporation, developers of the Teflon coating commonly used in non-stick frying pans, to produce wheel rims coated with the polytetraflouroethylene material. The non-stick coating, known for corrosion and moisture resistance, low friction, weathering and durability, is being used in this application to help clean road film, brake dust and other corrosive materials from wheels with greater ease. To the consumer, a Teflon wheel could mean the difference between a caustic cleaner and a burst of the hose. Before the new wheel hits the streets, targeted first at Jeeps, trucks and sport-utilities, it will be tested in a racing atmosphere where it's designed to reduce the build-up of brake dust and tire shred on the inside of the wheel, which can cause vibrations at high speeds. Both original equipment and aftermarket coatings are being developed, and American Racing has authorization to develop a full compliment of cleaners, sealants and polishes also containing Teflon.

SOUTHLAND WATER, LA APPROVES $1.6MILLION TO REDUCE CORROSION  top

The board of the Metropolitan Water District voted August 20 to seek proposals for a desalinization project, set aside money for conservation rebates and authorized a water storage project in the desert. The Chairman of the MWD Board commented that the meeting took some big steps, and a good number of smaller ones, to help keep high-quality water flowing from Southern California's faucets for decades to come, despite looming uncertainties of climate change, population growth, endangered species, and new water quality regulations. Amongst other things, the board approved the appropriation of $1.6 million for a public/private program working to lower salinity levels in water from the Colorado River. High salinity causes corrosion that is costly to homes, business and industry, and limits the use of recycled water for irrigation and groundwater recharge.

KOREA ADOPTS US ECO-FRIENDLY PLATING TECHNIQUE  top

The Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday that it has developed an eco-friendly plating technique that could be made available to the private sector by the end of the year. The new methods are expected to replace Hexachromium (Cr+6) as a plating solution, one of the substances linked to environmental pollution. The ministry said that the use of a tin-cobalt (Sn-Co) compound material significantly reduced harmful waste products and enhanced the ability of the plated material to resist abrasion, heat and corrosion by as much as 50 percent. A researcher for the Agency for Technology and Standards, which perfected the improved technique said that the use of Hexachromium has been so wide spread and cheap that there was very little incentive to seek alternatives. However, because countries in the European Union have begun restricting the import of products using such methods he said that it was imperative that Korea come up with alternatives. The four-year, 130 million won ($101,000) project should help slash the 11 billion won worth of Sn-Co plating solutions that have been imported annually. Korea is the third country in the world to have mastered the new plating method after the United States and Japan.

WD-40: THE IRRESISTIBLE APPEAL OF A CORROSION-RESISTANT  top

Although WD-40 was basically developed and marketed for lubricating, consumer uses were discovered by accident. WD-40 Co., originally known as Rocket Chemical, developed the product almost 50 years ago for use on the skin of the Atlas missile, to displace water and fight corrosion. The name stands for Water Displacement, 40th formula, and the formula hasn't changed since then. Some of the engineers sneaked it out to their homes and used it for cleaning rust off sinks and started to find other uses. When the company started to market it outside the space program, it sold samples to mechanics from the trunks of cars. Now the liquid is sold in 160 countries, in sizes ranging from a pocket-sized canister to 55-gallon drums. It's used so many ways that the company asked consumers to share them in a "Search for 2,000 Uses" contest last year.

They expected "maybe 20,000 entries" but had more than 300,000. So many people sent stories and asked for the master list that the contest evolved a few months ago into the WD-40 Fan Club. It has more than 25,000 members and a staggering list of uses. You might have known it can clean golf clubs, remove sludge from boats or keep mud from sticking to bicycles. You might not have realized it is useful for lubricating magazines on AK-47 assault rifles. The following tale was reported by a WD-40 employee: a bus in the Far East wouldn't run because a python was stuck in the exhaust, until a spritz of WD-40 slipped it out. In another WD-40 story, he said there's the guy who was robbing a retail establishment and got stuck coming in through the roof. To slip him out, the cops sprayed him with WD-40. "They probably used a whole can." Some people spray it on lures to attract fish. But it's a petroleum distillate, so the company doesn't endorse its use in lakes or rivers for environmental reasons. Humans are another matter. Some people said it makes a great perfume. Arthritis sufferers spray it on joints to remedy inflammation, but WD-40 Co. has done no research and takes no position. There's never been FDA approval for WD-40 as a medical aid.

WD-40 uses can be viewed at www.wd40.com

NEW COATING FOR STEEL EXTENDS CORROSION PROTECTION  top

ICI Devoe has made available Devflex 659, a low VOC, waterborne acrylic direct coating that can be applied directly to exterior or interior steel. The low odour, non yellowing coating has a high resistance to flash rusting and offers extended corrosion protection for exterior steel structures. Devflex 659 also dries quickly and is available in a range of colours.

A YEAR ON FROM CARLSBAD TRAGEDY, PIPELINE SAFETY MEASURES TAKEN  top

The 12 members of two extended families killed in one of the nation's deadliest natural gas pipeline explosions at a Carlsbad campsite a year ago are not forgotten. The explosion in a corroded 50-year-old pipeline about 350 yards from the family's campsite left a crater in the ground 86 feet long, 46 feet wide and 20 feet deep. The National Transportation Safety Board has found the pipe had corroded, but a spokesman says the investigation is not complete. The U.S. Transportation Department levied a $2.5 million fine against El Paso Energy Corp., which owns the pipeline, for failing to take safety precautions that could have prevented the explosion. It is the largest fine sought against a gas transmission company in the history of the federal pipeline safety program. El Paso Energy has said it disagrees with the fine, but the company has settled with some of the surviving family members. On June 19, El Paso agreed to pay $14 million to the surviving family of Bobby Smith. The company has reached confidential settlements in four other lawsuits filed by surviving family members. Seven others are still pending. In the aftermath of the explosion, El Paso Energy has reconfigured its pipeline system to simplify pipeline inspections to uncover corrosion. According to a company spokeswoman, the lines with dips and turns where internal inspection was difficult have been corrected and El Paso has replaced pipes in order to make the system more inspectable. The accident also prompted members of Congress to call for strengthening federal pipeline safety programs. A Pipeline Safety Improvement Act, which provides requirements to reduce safety risks, passed the Senate 98-0, but the House has not taken any action on the measure. In New Mexico, the Legislature passed a bill this year to strengthen pipeline safety measures by requiring pipeline companies in the state to adhere to federal pipeline safety rules. As of July 1, the state Public Regulation Commission can levy fines of up to $25,000 if companies that own pipelines don't comply with federal safety regulations. Previously, the fines were $500. Today, along the river the corroded pipeline has been removed and the crater filled. Signs are posted to keep people away from the popular campsite, but some law enforcement officers are still uneasy that campers will ignore the warnings.

INHIBITOR CUTS CORROSION IN DOMESTIC WATER PIPES - RESIDENTS SEEK SETTLEMENT WITH COUNTY  top

The number of South Carroll homes with pinhole-sized leaks in copper water pipes has declined since the county began adding a corrosion inhibitor to its treatment system, a study released August 7 shows.

The county has been tracking reports of leaks in South Carroll since early 1999. In April, Carroll officials mailed a survey to 7,800 homes that use public water to determine the cause and extent of pinhole-sized leaks in older subdivisions in Eldersburg and Sykesville. About 15 percent replied. The number of leaks reached more than 200 last year when the county changed the water treatment process at its Freedom plant, a facility that supplies up to 3 million gallons daily from Liberty Reservoir to homes in Sykesville and Eldersburg. The number dropped for the past year, which county officials have hailed as a "positive sign".

Although the inhibitor appears to have solved the corrosion problem, residents remain dissatisfied. Many homeowners incurred $1,000's costs in replacement copper piping, and are now looking to negotiate a settlement with the county. Two separate consultants hired by the county similarly concluded that the corrosion was caused by a lack of calcium in the water, meaning that a protective scale could not form properly inside the piping. This problem would leave the copper piping vulnerable to erosion by minute mineral particles, eventually leading to pinholes. The county began adding a federally approved chemical to the water after rebuilding its treatment system so that the chemical is not pumped back into the reservoir. The inhibitor is similar to one the county used until the early 1990s but discontinued because it caused algae blooms after it was discharged into the reservoir. Without the inhibitor, the reports of leaking pipes grew steadily from about 1995. A county survey provided a brief history of the leaks, asked for comments and replies to six questions, including the age of the home and whether leaky pipes have occurred in the home and, if so, when. Replies numbered 1,160. Of those, 490 reported leaks. From other sources, mainly utility companies, the county has located 635 other homes with leaking pipes. The majority of the leaks were shown to have occurred within the past few years, primarily to cold water pipes in homes built about 25 years ago. The county commissioners said that they would review the responses before making a decision.

OPS SUPPORTS VALIDATION OF PIPELINE CORROSION ASSESSMENT SERVICES  top

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--Oxbow Equities Corp. announced today (August 13) that its 54% owned investee company Baseline Technologies Inc. has announced that it has been contracted by Gas Technology Institute to provide turnkey data management and integration services for the joint industry/government Direct Assessment ("DA") project supported by American Gas Association, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the Office of Pipeline Safety of the U.S. Dept of Transportation, and the Gas Technology Institute. The INGAA Pipeline Safety committee, in cooperation with the Gas Technology Institute ("GTI") and the United States Office of Pipeline Safety ("OPS") has established a joint industry/government initiative to validate the application of DA for assessment of external corrosion, a major pipeline integrity threat. Currently, 18 interstate gas pipeline operators are participating in this external corrosion DA validation study by having Baseline utilize its Pipeline Information Control System ("PICS") software solutions to integrate pipeline integrity data.

For more information please refer to Baseline web site at www.baselinetech.com

GOVERNOR PUTS PRESSURE ON MOTIVA - "AGREE TO PLAN OR CLOSE REFINERY" OFFICIALS TOLD  top

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner ordered Motiva officials Wednesday (August 8) to develop a state-approved plan to inspect, maintain and replace equipment at the company's 44-year-old Delaware City refinery. A fire and chemical spill last month injured eight people and left one missing and presumed dead. Motiva officials have admitted that a sulfuric acid tank that collapsed in the fire had a history of corrosion and leaks and was in need of repair. The governor scolded company officials in a 90-minute meeting Wednesday and threatened to seek an injunction to halt operations at the refinery if they do not agree to her plan. Minner told the company to pay for an outside expert on refinery operations and maintenance, who would oversee the inspection and maintenance plan. She also ordered personal weekly updates on Delaware City operations by executives at the company's headquarters in Texas. Motiva officials refused to answer questions after the private meeting with the governor, but Minner said they told her they would agree to the demands. The Motiva plant has a long history of environmental and safety problems. In March, the company agreed to spend $116 million to reduce pollution. It also agreed to pay a $2.8 million penalty for environmental violations and contribute $1.25 million to environmental projects. According to Nicholas DiPasquale (State Environmental Secretary), state officials believe that two-thirds of the illegal emissions from the plant can be attributed to poor maintenance. Minner and DiPasquale said obtaining an injunction to halt refinery operations could be difficult, but they want Motiva officials to know that they mean business. They further commented that they do not intend to close the refinery, rather they intend to make sure it is run properly. Minner expressed a fear that management at the plant had put too much emphasis on productivity and not enough emphasis on safety.

TITAN AND ATLAS TO BE RESTORED TO FORMER GLORY  top

As a scorching August sun beat down on the concrete landing, revelers of all ages stood in awe as the first of two capsules was lifted off the shaft of the historic Titan rocket. But these rockets, 110 feet and 102 feet high, were not taking off - they were being taken down Friday as part of the New York Hall of Science's $68 million expansion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. By August 13, the Titan and Atlas rockets will be on a flatbed truck headed to Akron, Ohio, where they will be restored to their original luster and brought back as the centerpieces of a new Rocket Park. Though Atlas and Titan have called Queens home since making their debut as part of Space Park at the 1964-65 World's Fair, they have been largely unnoticed since.

After many years of exposure to the sun and other weather elements, the rockets began to wear away. The Mercury capsule that sits on the Atlas is the same model that launched John Glenn into space in 1963. The Hall spent 15 years raising money to finally give the rockets an overdue restoration. The rockets will be restored by Paul Thomarios, who in 1996 performed the complete restoration of the Apollo Saturn V rocket display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Thomarios said the work, which includes cleaning the inside and outside of the rockets, will take about six months. The capsules alone, which housed the astronauts, weigh just under 4,000 pounds each. Thomarios' firm will remove the corrosion and replace some exterior panels with bent aircraft aluminum. The shell of the rockets will be coated with molecular-weight epoxy and painted. The interiors will receive new steel frames. By 2004, Atlas and Titan will make a triumphant return to Queens as part of Science City, a 50,000-square-foot addition to the northeast end of the building that will include new exhibit space, a preschool playground, an observatory and a teaching center.

"HOT" METAL COOL FOR THE COMING SEASON - COPPER CROWNED ON THE CATWALK  top

In the cynical and fickle world of home decor and fashion, it's not surprising that the oldest known metal has, once again, come into its element. Currently eclipsing gold and silver tones - gold is often too bright and harsh, and all stainless-steel kitchens are verging on passé - you could crown copper the metal of the moment. "Copper is, of course, orange, and orange is hot right now and is forecast to be strong through the year 2004," says Margaret Walch, president of the Color Association of the United States. "Orange tones are very strong in fashion for the coming fall. When you see that, and see how well copper is doing in interiors, you know it's going to be big across the board." No longer restricted to the more mundane serviceability of pipes and wiring, copper is the rising star that just gleams to be seen around the home. Mainstream kitchenware manufacturers have clearly caught on, with popular brands offering mixers, teakettles, blenders, even salt and pepper grinders, with copper exteriors. Copper pots and pans, lined with tin or stainless steel since copper can poison certain foods, have always enjoyed a place in "serious" kitchens. Gourmets appreciate copper's ability to distribute heat evenly, and the resurgence in French style also accounts for renewed interest in copper. Copper's ability to change color in reaction with its environment only adds to its place in the popularity stakes. For anyone wishing to restore tarnished copper pieces, the solution is simple. "If you have highly corroded copper, remove the corrosion before polishing," writes Cheryl Mendelson in Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House ($ 35, Scribner). "To do this, try rubbing it with a solution of lemon juice and baking soda or a lemon dipped in salt; then rinse well." Clean copper can be clear-lacquered to prevent tarnishing. Whether in the garden, in the walls or a prominently displayed faucet, tile or decorative accessory, copper exudes a comfortable, engaging feel in any area of the home.

FROM SODA POP TO AUTO SHOP - ALUMINUM BENEFITS CONVINCE AUTOMAKERS  top

Aluminum content in MY 2002 vehicles will reach an all-time high, according to a recent industry report. The average aluminum content in 2002 model year cars and light trucks will increase to 268 pounds per vehicle on average from 255 pounds just last year, according to a report from American Metal Market (AMM), a metal trades journal. Both domestic and import automakers are using more aluminum to improve fuel economy, reduce emissions and enhance vehicle performance. While casting alloys make up much of the gain, AMM reports that sheet, extrusion and forging alloys are gaining acceptance in the automotive marketplace. Aluminum offers significant benefits to automotive engineers including aggressive weight reduction, improved corrosion resistance and recyclability. No longer restricted to "specialty" vehicles, in recent years aluminum has made impressive gains in high volume vehicles.

To learn more about automotive aluminum applications and attributes, please visit www.autoaluminum.org.

INEEL WINS AWARD FOR SUPER-HARD STEEL  top

A new, super-hard steel - which could strengthen everything from helicopter engines to lawn-mower blades - has been recognized as one of the top 100 inventions of the year. Originally developed with money from the military, the tough coating can be sprayed on almost any kind of machinery to protect it from wear and tear.

According to INEEL, the super-hard steel is three times tougher and harder than any other alloy known worldwide. The research team is discussing the technology with about 20 companies that may be interested in using it to coat parts that wear out. It could also be applied so knife blades sharpen themselves as they're used. The technology developed by a team of INEEL researchers won an R&D 100 award. The award spotlights the brightest engineering ideas in the country, which have included the fax machine and anti-lock brakes. During the program, the researchers developed a new steel alloy that transforms more easily into a metallic glass, which has a smooth liquid structure but a solid form. The work grows out of a longstanding program at the INEEL. The super-hard steel's structure - with fewer tiny cracks and holes - makes the material both harder and tougher than other coatings. It won't come off, even with a hammer and chisel. The researchers are currently devising tests for companies that make everything from rock-crushing equipment to a new lubricant-free diesel engine. They're also working with the military to strengthen parts used in helicopter and jet engines. The super-hard steel is also attractive because it's about 10 times cheaper than other high-performance coatings. The possibilities are almost endless because nearly every industry struggles with wear and corrosion problems - applications may also extend to steel reinforcement bar used for strengthening bridges.

BHOPAL LESSONS LEARNED - SAFETY TOP PRIORITY FOR NEW GAS PIPES - BILL PASSED  top

Kuala Lumpur: The government must ensure that the installation of gas pipes throughout the country meets with safety requirements, said Senator Datuk Dr T. Marimuthu, August 13. He said the incident of gas pipe leakage in Bhopal, India several years ago which resulted in the loss of many lives should be taken as a lesson. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Douglas Unggah Embass, when tabling the Gas Supply (Amendment) Bill 2001, said there were 22,000 homes nationwide which were now being supplied with gas through the pipes. Marimuthu said the number of houses receiving the piped gas was high and the installation of the pipes must be regulated. He also urged the government to ensure that the installation of gas pipes were carried out after getting approval based on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report. It was also highlighted that construction activities over the gas pipe routes could endanger the safety of the people. 25 cases of pipe leakage have been reported since 1993 which could be due to various reasons including works carried out by a third party, unintentional release, abuse of the equipment and corrosion. During the debate about the new bill, it was pointed out that the government always ensured that the quality of pipes used complied with requirements besides regulating the design used as well as in terms of installation and repairs. The bill was passed.

CLEAN AIR STRATEGY DENOUNCED AS "SUBSIDY" FOR MID-WEST CORN FARMERS  top

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Fearing steep gasoline price hikes and more air pollution, California environmental officials have filed a lawsuit to stop the Bush administration from requiring refineries to blend ethanol into the state's gasoline supply. The lawsuit seeks to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to waive a requirement that an oxygen-boosting additive _ such as ethanol or MTBE _ be put in gasoline to make it burn cleaner. State officials say reformulated gasoline can be produced in California that meets federal air quality goals without either MTBE or ethanol, which both pose additional pollution problems. Gov. Gray Davis has ordered MTBE _ a refining byproduct currently used in most gasoline in California _ banned by Jan. 1, 2003, because it can pollute groundwater. That leaves only ethanol, a fermented byproduct of corn produced with a federal subsidy mostly in the Midwest, as an option. Yet ethanol increases the most common air pollutants in California and could drive gasoline prices up by 50 cents a gallon, said the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The federal requirement on fuel additives has been branded "a straitjacket mandate" based on "politics, pure and simple". The 1990 Clean Air Act required blending oxygenates in gasoline sold in areas that do not meet federal clean air standards. However, a provision of the act allows this requirement to be waived if a state can prove it can meet the standards without the additives, or that the additives would hamper efforts to comply with the act. California sought that waiver, but Midwest lawmakers helped block the state's request. Although numerous studies showed ethanol could worsen California's smog problems, state officials and environmentalists say the Bush administration ignored science and heeded the political influence of Midwestern corn farmers and the ethanol industry. California produces only 5 million to 7 million gallons of ethanol a year, leaving the state dependent on the Midwest. Ethanol would have to be imported from corn states such as Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois by barges, rail cars and trucks. It cannot be sent to California in pipelines because it easily mixes with water and could cause corrosion. It also needs its own storage tanks. The state's refiners may have to spend as much as $1 billion to convert their facilities for ethanol by the Jan. 1, 2003, MTBE-phase-out deadline. State officials have estimated that the cost of refitting refineries would add 3 to 5 cents a gallon to the price of gasoline. But the state energy commission estimates an ethanol supply shortage, caused by Midwest drought or transportation problems, could trigger price spikes as much as 50 cents a gallon. Officials of the U.S. EPA were not commenting Sunday (August 12) on the lawsuit, which was filed late Friday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

RUSSIANS REJECT JAPANESE STEEL IN FAVOR OF DOMESTIC PIPES   top

Moscow. The first batch of Russian pipes, produced by the United Metallurgy Company, was delivered to the gas pipeline under construction Pelyatka Messoyakha. The peculiarity of the gas pipeline is the overland way of laying. The conditions of using pipes in this area stipulate the strict requirements to the pipeline equipment: it is to have an increased corrosion resistance and stand the northern frost, which reaches 60 degrees below zero. Up to now Tymyrgaz, the main customer, preferred Japanese pipes, as the most reliable under extreme conditions. But lately gas workers have chosen the domestically produced equipment. The pipes of 720 millimeters in diameter, delivered by the United Metallurgy Company to gas pipeline Pelyatka Messoyakha , are made of new grade of steel of high durability. This grade was specially worked out by the United Metallurgy Company together with JSC Severstal. According to the press service of Chelyabinsk tube-rolling mill, 8.5 thousand tons of pipes were delivered to Tymyr by the United Metallurgy Company.

MAN MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD - GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT MISLED ON CORROSION REPAIR  top

Refinery workers performed different repairs than they described to state officials on a 15 year-old 415,300-gallon sulfuric acid tank with a serious history of corrosion, company records show. The sulfuric acid tank at the Motiva refinery collapsed and burned July 17, injuring eight people and leaving one missing and presumed dead. Workers have been unable to search for the remains of Jeffrey Davis of Fairless Hills, Pa. because of acid remaining inside the tank area and leaking from other tanks. Company records date concern about corrosion in the tank to at least 1992, and a 1995 inspection report said the tank would use up all its corrosion capacity in four years. Records from Star Enterprise, which owned the refinery before Motiva, show the company informed state officials in 1994 that the tank had a deep groove three-quarters of the way around its inside wall. The refinery reported to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control that plant workers would replace a foot-wide band of the wall around the entire tank. But a follow-up company report shows that the next day, workers were ordered to fill the groove with welding material. Motiva officials had no comment on the reports and would not say when the tank was inspected or repaired, but said that nearly half the sulfuric acid believed to be in four tanks at the scene of the fire (approx. 0.6 million gallons) is unaccounted for. State police, the state fire marshal, DNREC, and several federal agencies are investigating the accident.

BRIDGE CORROSION PROBLEMS - IS CARBON FIBER THE SOLUTION ?  top

Civil engineering professor Issam Harik and colleagues at the University of Kentucky are exploring the use of carbon fiber for concrete reinforcement. Recently, bridge builders installed a carbon-fiber reinforced span across Two Mile Creek in Clark County, Ky. Unlike its many applications in mechanical engineering, the carbon fiber reinforcement was chosen for its resistance to corrosion rather than its high ratio of strength to weight. The team has reported that, in congested areas, more than 50 percent of the cost of repairing a bridge goes to traffic control. On highly salted roads, reinforcement rods that last 30 to 40 years instead of the usual 10 to 20 help to justify the greater initial expense of advanced materials. For a bridge deck whose steel reinforcement costs $5,000, the same material in carbon fiber runs between $20,000 and $50,000, depending on design and the variety of carbon fiber that makes up the rod. Corrosion of the reinforcing rods is particularly bad in areas of extensive salting. Concrete absorbs the salty runoff, and eventually the steel rusts and its bond with the concrete weakens. Then, the concrete cracks and crumbles. The Two Mile Creek bridge used 3/8-inch-diameter rod instead of the 1/2-, 5/8-, or 3/4-inch diameters common for steel reinforcing because that's what was available. The design actually used more carbon fiber rods than it would have steel rods because codes demand a minimum amount of reinforcement.

DUPLEX STEEL REDUCES MAINTENANCE COST FOR MIDDLE EAST SEWAGE SYSTEM  top

One of the major problems in the Middle East when pumping sewage is the region's very high ambient temperature. Consequently, sewage quickly becomes septic, generating excessive amounts of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) which in turn leads to rapid corrosion, if sewage pumps are made from unprotected cast iron or nodular iron. In addition, in areas near to the coast, the sewers can suffer from seawater ingress, adding still further to potential corrosion problems. Two pumping stations for a new housing development at Madinat Rahbah, which lies alongside the Abu Dhabi highway near to the coast, utilize Hidrostal's prerotation pumping system. Owing to the area's level terrain, the pumping stations were placed in very deep wells, at 21 and 16 metres depth respectively, to allow for sufficient gravity feed of sewage to the pumping stations. The system uses fixed speed immersible pumps, which operate well in both wet and dry conditions. The pump hydraulic end and immersible motor have all wetted parts manufactured from Duplex stainless steel which ensures that the whole pump is protected against corrosion from any hydrogen sulphide gas produced by the sewage. Consequently, although the initial cost is higher where these better quality materials are used, the maintenance costs are greatly reduced over the pump's long life. This is a significant consideration when considering maintenance requirements for the pumps situated at such great depths.

$140MILLION STATUE - CLIENT DEMANDS 1,000-YEAR GUARANTEE  top

Religious charity 'Maitreya Project International' has commissioned a 152m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha at Bodh Gaya, Buddhism's holiest site. To be ready by 2005, the subject of this $140million project must last for 1,000 years. Overall, the giant Buddha will stand 50 storeys tall [over three times the size of the Statue of Liberty]. This includes the throne of the statue, which is a magnificent structure and is in itself equivalent to a 17 storey building. In order to meet the client's requirements, the contractors must work within tolerances that are accurate to 2mm. The body of the statue is to be constructed from between 5,000-7,000 individual metal panels, to be produced as castings and assembled like a huge jigsaw to form a cast metal shell. The 15mm thick panels are being made from a special aluminum nickel-bronze alloy using sand moulds. As the bronze 'skin' will expand and contract due to daily temperature changes, the statue will require two special movement joints in the neck and seat. These joints must be constructed in such a way as to protect the internal supports of the statue from water leakage, erosion and corrosion. Even with proper maintenance ordinary steel would corrode relatively quickly, so that it would need to be replaced several times over the course of 1,000 years. Stainless steel would be a better alternative, but may prove too expensive. Special studies have been performed to assess the effects of climatic change, extreme winds, earthquakes, steelwork corrosion, concrete durability, bronze casting and thermal stress. The team is incorporating the latest techniques used in the automotive industry to build an accurate bronze-clad statue, magnified 100 times from the original artwork produced by the sculptors.

ISO 12944 - FIRST GLOBAL STANDARD FOR COATINGS  top

Engineers and specifiers should be more widely aware of the first ever global coatings standard - ISO 12944, says International Protective Coatings (IPC). The multinational business, part of Akzo Nobel, was active in drawing up the new standard, which came into effect in 1999, and has a continuing involvement in its future development. ISO 12944 is designed to replace a multitude of individual national standards such as BS5493, DIN55928, from which it has derived some of its provisions. In addition, the new ISO covers circumstances not previously touched by any formal standard, for example making it clear which party is contractually responsible at each stage of coatings use should any problem arise. Another achievement is its definition of durability range to help owners estimate sensible maintenance times: low is 2-5 years, Medium 5-15 years and High more than 15 years. The standard also categorises the corrosivity of environments, from C1 for the interior of heated buildings in areas of low pollution at one extreme, to marine, coastal and offshore areas with high salinity at the other, C5-M. There are eight different sections covering issues such as the measurement of the corrosivity of various environments, surface preparation and laboratory testing procedures. The new standard is specifically aimed at engineers who have some technical knowledge in the area of corrosion protection and are familiar with other relevant specification standards. Its introduction follows several years of discussion and negotiation and is seen as a major achievement by the coatings industry. Commenting on the new standard, IPC hails ISO 12944 as a constant reference, enabling technical people involved in paint specification and application to communicate globally in the same 'language' and compare like with like.

UP TO $19BILLION LAWSUIT BROUGHT AGAINST KOCH - LAWYERS' "PERCENTAGE" QUESTIONED  top

Following a number of successful lawsuits against the company for fatal and environmentally disastrous pipeline accidents, it was reported August 5 that Koch Industries Inc. is facing a new legal assault concerning its pipeline operations. A class-action lawsuit (brought by one or more persons on behalf of a larger group) filed in June asks a federal court in Lufkin to compel the company to inspect, test, maintain, repair and map thousands of miles of natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines in Texas and several other states. The lawsuit contends that court intervention is needed because Koch has failed to safely maintain its pipelines and that, as a result, the lines pose an imminent danger of leaks, fires or explosions. The case seeks to prevent damage that might occur in the future, looking to the court to take a role as 'regulator of risk'. A national group, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, claims that asking the court to regulate business activity is 'inappropriate'. However, Koch is not the only party involved in the case - according to the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Pipeline Safety has failed to monitor Koch's lines and does not even have current maps of the company's pipeline network. A spokesman for Koch commented that the case is "meritless" and is based entirely on events that occurred five or more years ago, these having been litigated and resolved. Koch remains confident of vindication and confirmation of their status amongst the safest pipeline operators. The company is expected to file a formal response in court shortly. A lawyer on the plaintiff's team said the goal is to secure $11 billion to $19 billion in pipeline improvements by Koch during a five-year period. Although the lawsuit seeks no money damages, the lawyers, if successful, would share a percentage of the amount earmarked for improvements. The current case cites shortcomings in corrosion control, public education and spill response in the Lively and Corpus Christi incidents as evidence of Koch's failure to safely operate its pipelines. And it says those shortcomings can be attributed to the company's policy of "market-based management," a set of business principles crafted by its chairman and chief executive officer, Charles Koch. A spokesman for Koch declared that it is because of "market-based management" that the company has achieved significant improvements in pipeline operations in recent years. Leaks have declined by 92 percent since 1995 and last year, despite shipping 27 billion gallons of liquids by pipeline, Koch experienced only 13 spills that had to be reported to government agencies, with about one quart reaching water. Questions have been raised about the validity of the lawsuit, citing the potential financial gain for the lawyers as the real impetus behind the case.

'PEEK' POWER NOW IN POWDER  top

Victrex plc has launched a global marketing initiative to promote Peek-Coat for powder coating applications. Working in co-operation with a number of commercial coaters, Victrex has fine-tuned their products and developed enhanced processing techniques that allow Peek polymer to be applied as a powder coating using conventional equipment. Application development is underway in Europe, the USA and Asia-Pacific, and a selection of powder-coated parts formed a focal point at last year's NPE 2000 exhibition. The launch of Peek-Coat opens up exciting new opportunities across a wide range of industries where parts require enhanced corrosion protection and wear resistance. These parts range in diversity from components in ultra-pure water systems to medical, pharmaceutical and food processing applications. Hailed as a cost-effective solution Peek is suitable for parts such as agitators and vessels, and to provide corrosion protection in aggressive environments in chemical plants and offshore oil installations. A key advantage of powder coating with Peek-Coat is that it provides a highly cost-efficient means of enhancing part performance, even in small volume production runs. Applying a thin layer of high-build Peek polymer coating to a substrate confers all the properties of Peek polymer to that application, and helps retain the structural benefit of the substrate.

Special Peek properties include high temperature resistance and the retention of mechanical performance at high temperature, outstanding wear and abrasion resistance, good performance in a wide range of chemical and radiation environments, excellent fire, smoke and toxicity performance and good electrical properties.

The fact that Peek polymer is an inherently pure polymer with low levels of extractable ionic species makes it suitable for analytical, semiconductor and medical applications. Peek also has FDA approval for food contact applications.

TANTALUM SET TO OVERTAKE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY  top

Tantalum is at the cutting edge of material technology and demand for this metal is increasing. Due to improved metallurgical and manufacturing techniques used to produce mini-capacitors, tantalum metal is increasingly finding its way into virtually every electronic product built today. According to Roskill Information Services (London, England), demand for tantalum has grown by an average of 10% a year since 1992 and this trend is expected to continue for the next few years. Approximately 70% of worldwide tantalum consumption is used for the manufacturing of tantalum capacitors. A smaller percentage is used as an alloying metal for piping and vessels in the Chemical Processing Industry (CPI), mainly due to its high melting point and resistance to corrosion. Tantalum capacitors (6% of total capacitor consumption, and rising) are found in electronic devices, such as automobile electronics, cell phones, computers and camcorders. To meet market demand, the mining of tantalum ore (tantalite) has increased significantly over the past two years. Tantalum ore is mined, smelted into tantalum metal ingots, and processed into capacitor-grade powder that is used to make capacitors for the electronic industry. Australia accounts for approximately 70% of tantalum ore production, with the remaining 30% coming from Brazil's Companhia Industrial Fluminense (Sao Joao del Rei, Brazil), Canada's Tantalum Mining Company (Bernic Lake, Manitoba Canada), China's Ningxia Orient Tantalum Industry Company Limited (Ningxia, China) and smaller properties in Bolivia, Russia and Africa. The world's leading tantalum producer, Sons of Gwalia (SOG) Limited (Perth, Australia), holds more than 50% of defined global tantalum reserves. Mining 25% of all the tantalum produced worldwide at sites in Greenbushes and Wodgina, Australia, the company recently announced an $80 million (USD) expansion to increase annual production at its Greenbushes and Wodgina Tantalum Mines from 1.2 million pounds to over 2.3 million pounds per year.

HIGH IMPERMEABILITY FILM DEVELOPED  top

A silicon oxide vacuum-electroplated high impermeability film has been developed by Zhongbao Yunmeng Plastic Film Plant located in Hubei Yunmeng County. The basis of the technology is plasma chemical gaseous phase deposition. The product has excellent impermeability and is also resistant to heat, breakage, folding, and chemical corrosion. It has good microwave penetration and is readily recycled for reuse. The film can be widely used in frozen food, beverages, medical sanitation, chemical reagents, and commodity chemicals.

ALUMINUM HITS THE ROAD - A POTTED HISTORY FROM 19TH CENTURY NOVELTY TO 21ST CENTURY ENGINEERING  top

Common aluminum can still claim the cutting edge - this is the contention of "Aluminum by Design," a traveling exhibition opening Aug. 23 at Montreal's Museum of Fine Art. The show originated at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, crucible of the U.S. aluminum industry, and moved to New York's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Major funding came from the Alcoa Foundation, which owes its existence to Aluminum Company of America. Aluminum is abundant in the Earth's crust, but hard to get. The first molten globules were isolated in Germany in 1845, creating a "material of the future". Since then, airplanes, building materials, baseball bats, bicycles, cameras, chairs, tableware, teapots and even a space station have bolstered that theme. The show's subtitle is "Jewelry to Jets," but the material reigns supreme as a soda pop can. Aluminum was rare, exotic and untested in 1855, when the public got a first look at "silver from clay" at the Paris Universal Exhibition. Napoleon III was so enthralled that Charles Christofle, the silversmith, made the French emperor an elegant table centerpiece. In London, Sir Alfred Gilbert designed the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus out of aluminum in 1886, the year the metal's first high-fashion era came to a close. An American, Charles Martin Hall, devised an electrolytic process to produce aluminum cheaply, and the metal's cachet plummeted with the price. Hall's first unremarkable gray blobs are preserved under glass. They contrast with the elegance of architectural ornament, which affordability made possible. In 1902-04, architect Wagner used aluminum to create two Vienna landmarks: an elaborate Jugendstil facade for the Die Zeit building, and the Postal Savings Bank interior. The Hindenburg air ship was fitted with aluminum furniture down to the piano, and passengers were encouraged to carry aluminum luggage to reduce weight. But wartime needs increased aluminum production 500 percent. Aircraft, submarines, Quonset huts, even the forerunner of Starck's Hudson chair, which was designed by the Emeco company for U.S. Navy ships, required aluminum. Suddenly confronted with peace, the big three U.S. aluminum makers -- Alcoa, Reynolds and Kaiser -- switched gears. They began to promote aluminum in every facet of design imaginable. They succeeded in three global growth industries: transportation, packaging and construction.

"Aluminum by Design" presents the battle for soda supremacy as a "war" that aluminum won. Perhaps the glass bottle and steel industries simply misjudged how many sodas Americans could consume. The specter of a new competition is raised by the presence at the show of an Audi auto body frame made of a lightweight aluminum alloy rather than steel. The show ends with a contemporary challenge: how to recycle all those soda cans.

$650,000 LOSS AT NATIONAL LANDMARK - LOCAL BUSINESSES ALSO AFFECTED  top

Visitors to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse will, once again, have to content themselves with snapshots taken from its octagonal base. The nation's tallest brick beacon will remain closed to climbers for the remainder of the year, the National Park Service announced Wednesday. Park officials shut the doors to the 1870 landmark June 11 after a 3 1/2-inch piece of cast iron from a bracket bracing the spiral staircase fell from the second landing. No one was injured, but reportedly the chunk nearly hit a woman in the head. An inspection found that another piece was loose and about to fall. The park service was initially hopeful that the lighthouse could be reopened this summer. More than 200,000 people visit the beacon annually, but some local business owners say fewer tourists come when they know they can't climb the lighthouse. Cracks have been evident for years in the brackets and treads of the 257 steps that twist up the interior of the 208-foot tower. The lighthouse's stairway is divided into eight flights - 32 steps from landing to landing, including the landing treads. The eighth flight, leading to the base of the lantern, has 16 treads. Eleven additional steps to the lamp room have not been open to the public. During years of exposure to salt air and humid conditions, the cast iron has become brittle and cracked in some places, probably exacerbated by corrosion. Besides having to answer to a disappointed public, the park service is taking a hit in its bank account. The park service estimates its revenue losses will total $650,000 this year. The major cost of repair is labor - an entire flight of stairs must be disassembled to fix only one tread. Park officials are hoping the stairs will be repaired in time to climb next season.

$10MILLION LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE COMPANY - FAA ALSO INVESTIGATING  top

In a lawsuit filed August 9, it is claimed that a Boeing 747 cargo plane owned by Airfreight Express (AFX) was temporarily turned into a ticking time bomb by faulty and deceptive maintenance practices. The target of the suit is Evergreen Air Center, a midsize maintenance and storage facility in Marana, Ariz. The company is a subsidiary of the privately held Evergreen International Aviation, based in McMinnville, Ore., whose interests include airplane sales, ground logistics and freight forwarding. The Air Center has done work for America West and cargo carriers such as Atlas Air, which has the largest fleet of 747 freighters in the world. Evergreen also maintains NASA's two 747s, used to haul the space shuttles, and it is one of only a handful of prep centers for Boeing. That means new planes from Boeing's factories are sometimes stored temporarily at Evergreen, then later prepared by Evergreen workers for final delivery to an airline. The suit alleges that Evergreen, whose motto is "Quality Without Compromise," made multiple repair errors, failed to perform required work, charged for work never done and extorted money from AFX, which is based in London and will start service to Chicago later this month (AFX has since hired another firm to make the plane airworthy.) Last week the FAA confirmed that it was conducting its own special inspection of Evergreen. This public whistle blowing, particularly over safety issues, is uncommon in the industry. Airlines and maintenance companies are so interdependent that disputes are often disposed of quietly, and aviation remains remarkably safe. Major airlines such as United and American do most of their own work, but 50% of all maintenance done on U.S. airliners is outsourced, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The allegations against Evergreen, which has never been implicated in a major crash, may point to a wider problem in aviation maintenance. Just last week the NTSB announced that it would hold a public hearing on the crash last year of an Emery Worldwide Airlines DC-8 cargo plane near Rancho Cordova, Calif., and that the work by a third party has been a focus of that investigation. One NTSB official expressed concern about some statistics that show an increase in serious accidents with maintenance as the primary cause. The ValuJet crash in 1996, which killed 110, was attributed to a contractor's error. Aircraft maintenance and repair is supposed to be an exact science. Detailed procedures are required for each task, and unique tools are often needed. The FAA requires that all work be done according to precise specifications from the aircraft's manufacturer and that it be approved by the agency. Compliance is so rigid that it is measured in millimeters. Work cards document every step in the process and are reviewed first by the airline and then by FAA inspectors. Maintenance errors are suspected in the most recent major U.S. crash, Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which plummeted into the Pacific Ocean in January 2000, killing all 88 aboard. AFX has said that Evergreen's mishandling jeopardized crucial flight-safety items such as smoke detectors and flight-control systems, and that Evergreen failed to find one of the most worrisome defects: corrosion in a vital structure. AFX discovered that bolts in the rear pressure bulkhead--the essential internal wall that supports the plane's airframe--were badly corroded. AFX also claims Evergreen botched repairs of the aluminum skin of the plane so badly that it distorted the information fed through the system that helps maintain the 747's separation from other planes. Then, AFX contends, Evergreen falsified test results to cover up its misdeeds. Mechanics at Evergreen also allegedly left an unusual--and potentially dangerous--array of items (including a screwdriver, an Evergreen security ID and even an Evergreen lapel pin) loose inside the fuselage. In the suit, AFX is asking for $ 10 million in damages.

ACID DIP BENEFICIAL FOR REPLACEMENT HIP  top

Last Aug. 29, a senior surgeon at the Bone and Joint Institute in Los Angeles wrote a letter to Sulzer Orthopedics (a joint replacement manufacturer), reporting seven instances of loose sockets in the company's Inter-Op implant. In mid-September, Sulzer began investigating in earnest. In an Oct. 19 letter, the surgeon reported three or four additional failures saying "The mystery to me is why this all began to occur in the last six months. I cannot blame the Inter-Op cup because I used the Inter-Op from August 1999 until March 2000 without a single problem. Something has changed and hopefully your 'detectives' can figure it out for me."

At the end of November, Sulzer's detectives figured out what had changed. In October 1999, when transferring production from an outside contractor to its own factory, the company eliminated a seemingly unnecessary production step, a dip in acid to prevent corrosion. The step was thought unnecessary because the implant was made of titanium, which does not corrode. But it turned out that the acid bath had an unrecognized benefit: it destroyed the mineral oil residue that had leaked onto the implants from the manufacturing equipment. Sulzer has since restored the acid baths and added tests to detect residues.

ALUMINIUM SLUDGE RECYCLED FOR AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION  top

Kobe Steel Ltd has developed a process that recycles aluminium sludge produced during automobile manufacturing so that it can be reused in aluminium production. Recycling this waste material helps car makers reduce the cost of sludge disposal, as well as protecting the environment. Aluminium sludge is created as a by-product of a chemical treatment applied to automobile bodies. To improve paint adhesiveness and corrosion resistance, the bodies are often treated with a zinc-phosphate before being painted. But, when aluminium parts are thus treated, aluminium leaches into the treatment solution and is precipitated as cryolite, a mineral consisting of sodium, aluminium and fluoride. Until now, the cryolite recovered from the sludge has been disposed in landfill sites. But in Kobe's innovative recycling process, developed in conjunction with Nippon Paint Co Ltd and aluminium flux manufacturer Fountec Co Ltd, the recycled cryolite is used in the production of an aluminium flux for degassing. Automobile manufacturers are expected to use more and more aluminium to reduce vehicle weights and consequently improve mileage, and because of environmental concerns companies had been looking for better ways of reusing the cryolite in the sludge. In addition to the environmental benefits, companies will save money by reusing more of the aluminium, and reduce disposal costs.

NORTHWEST STANDS BY 30 YEAR-OLD FLEET: DC-9'S ARE TOPS   top

With no signs of recovery in business travel, Northwest Airlines continues to mull grounding some of its older and costlier aircraft such as its DC-10s. But one type that won't face such consideration is Northwest's oldest, its fleet of 172 DC-9s. Seven years after deciding to invest $ 700 million into the aging jets, which typically carry between 100 and 125 passengers, the carrier couldn't be happier with the results, even if some passengers say they're wary of flying inside older planes. The DC-9s -- with an average age of more than 30 years -- remain Northwest's most reliable plane mechanically, resulting in the best on-time figures of any type in the fleet. Given the choice of buying new planes versus refurbishing the DC-9s and quieting their engines to meet federal noise standards, Northwest bet in the early 1990s that it would save $ 14 million per aircraft by keeping them in service. So far, the airline estimates it has saved about $ 13.6 million per plane.

The Boeing Co. recently approached Northwest about certifying each DC-9's operational life for another 7,000 "cycles" -- defined as one takeoff and landing -- because Boeing's testing shows they would easily withstand the stresses. Northwest flies each DC-9 about 2,000 cycles each year, but Northwest isn't interested in adding more years of life to the planes. The average Northwest DC-9 has nearly 17 more years of useful life. How traffic stacks up in the next three months will determine to what extent Northwest removes widebody DC-10s from its fleet. The DC-10 carries about 250 passengers. Northwest accelerated deliveries of Airbus and Boeing planes in 2002 to replace the DC-10s. Northwest took delivery of its 100th Airbus last week, and will take delivery of a new plane every two weeks for the next five years on average. Including its orders of regional jets, Northwest will see its aircraft fleet grow 35 percent by 2005. The average age of its non-DC-9 fleet in 2005 will be 8.2 years, where the average today without the DC-9s is 12 years.