Institute News
On 9th February 2023, the branch hosted a very successful 1-day hybrid technical conference with 35 attendees, around 90% of these attending in person and the remaining electing to attend online, including representatives from AMPP. This was a special ICorr award-winner’s themed event covering 4 main themes, electrochemistry, cathodic protection, production chemistry and protective coatings, and the venue was the Birmingham Council House, located in the centre of Birmingham, a ‘stunning’ setting for the event.
It was clear that many enjoyed the network opportunities provided by this ‘face to face’ experience, which is still a bit a novelty after extended COVID restrictions of recent years. The event was priced accordingly to attract such participation. Many thanks are due to the team at HQ who handled our registrations and to the staff of the Council House who put on a ‘more than generous lunchtime spread. Bill Whittaker kindly assisted with the event planning and George Winning skilfully managed communications.
The day started with a presentation from Professor Alison Davenport, University of Birmingham School of Metallurgy and Materials, and the UR Evans Award winner. Alison developed an interest in synchrotron methods after her PhD at Cambridge, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA, before returning to the UK to the Universities of Manchester and then Birmingham. She was awarded an OBE for services to corrosion and electrochemistry in 2018. Alison gave an extremely well-illustrated and cleverly animated talk entitled “Pitting: The delicate balance between dissolution and passivation.” The processes of corrosion pit development were explained very clearly, and it was very impactful presentation.
Chris Lynch, Senior Engineering Manager of Corrpro Europe followed this with a heartfelt talk on “Cathodic Protection Standards Making”, and of his personal journey in standards development, clearly laying out all the procedural processes and interfaces involved.
After lunch, Ken Lax Technical Director at Corroconsult UK Ltd., gave a very comprehensive summary of BS EN ISO 21857:2021 “Prevention of corrosion on pipeline systems influenced by stray currents.” He covered many aspects in his talk including, shortcomings in CP training and certification, relevance of pipe-to-soil potentials, sources of CP system interference (obvious and not so obvious), measurement techniques, circuit and data analysis, along an outline of the standard itself.
This preceded an excellent talk by George Winning of Corrosion and Chemical Consulting Ltd, who explained in detail the importance of production chemistry to the Energy Sector in all its various stages of development, and implementation, for a particular asset / production zone. George then went on to discuss the forthcoming ICorr production chemistry for corrosion engineers – PC4CE course, the contents of which have been kindly donated to ICorr by BP.
The final session took us further into coatings and coatings Standards. Chris Googan, Materials & Corrosion Engineer at Anticorrosion Engineering Ltd, provided some detailed insights into ‘Why do Protective Coatings Fail? and the various points of intervention to prevent this. Chris is a Corrosion Specialist with more than 30years experience, not only in hydrocarbon production, refining, chemicals, and petrochemicals, but also in also shipping, automotive, defence, power generation, water, civil engineering, legal and insurance sectors. Simon Daly, a consultant for the Safinah Group in Gateshead, then went on to describe some unique challenges for selecting coatings for the fixed and floating offshore wind industry. He considered the various types of structures, corrosion categories, corrosion protection methods, coating specifications, influences, and possible improvements. Malcolm Morris, Technical Manager with the Protective & Marine Coatings division of Sherwin-Williams, closed this very informative session with an ‘Update on International Standards Activity within the Protective Coatings Sector’, carefully explaining the hierarchy of standards and all recent updates.
As part of the day’s proceedings, a Certificate of Appreciation was given to Winston Shepherd in recognition of a lifetime contribution to the Corrosion Industry and Standards Development.
The combined presentations for this event can be found at Midlands Branch – Institute of Corrosion (icorr.org) Local Technical Programme.
This extensive programme raised many interesting and thought-provoking questions by Attendees on the day, if fact too many to list in detail here.
Q&A Feedback
We wish to offer a clarification on behalf of AMPP to our event attendees in connection with a question raised in the context of standards development, that NACE/AMPP ‘standards’ are not Standards as such, because they are not issued by a national standards body, e.g. BSI in UK.AMPP have supplied the following clarification to us:
• AMPP (Association of Materials Protection and Performance) is an ANSI (American National Standards Institute) accredited Standards Development Organisation (SDO). ANSI is a non-profit organisation that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standards, and conformity assessment system. Founded in 1918, the Institute works in close collaboration with stakeholders from industry and government to identify and develop standards and conformance-based solutions to national and global priorities. ANSI is the sole U.S. representative and full member of ISO, and, as a founding member, plays an active role in ISO’s governance and technical work. Thus, AMPP’s standards development process is therefore accredited by ISO through ANSI.
• AMPP, like ASTM, SAE, and many others, develop consensus standards as an accredited SDO, and as such the TM (Test Method), SP (Standard Practice) and MR (Materials Recommendations) published by AMPP are Standards which can be, and are, deployed globally. AMPP Standards are available for use internationally and can be cited in regulatory requirements. The subject matter experts developing the standards, and those on the consensus body are international, and indeed some standards have been inaugurated from SMEs outside the USA e.g. China, which have then developed with global participation. ANSI undertook a thorough audit of
AMPP’s procedures in their SDO activities soon after the formation of the Association, maintaining their accredited standards developer status.
• In the USA, ANSI oversees SDO’s who issue the standards. For any additional clarification required, please contact Brad Wilder, Director – Standards brad.wilder@ampp.org
For additional clarification, AMPP have the following active document types:
Standard Practices (SP)
SPs define the requirements and recommendations for the selection, design, installation, or operation of a material or system and provide detailed descriptions of requirements for quality of a product or process that can be incorporated into a procurement document.
Standard Test Methods (TM)
TMs contain procedures for conducting tests to ascertain the characteristics of a material, design, or operation. TMs do not include pass/fail criteria for the material, design, or operation being evaluated by the TM; these criteria may be provided in SPs or MRs.
Standard Material Requirements (MR)
MRs define the required or recommended characteristics of a material. MRs may include requirements for chemical composition, mechanical properties, physical properties, performance properties, and other aspects of the material’s manufacture and use.
Guides (GUIDE)
Guides present the user with information about alternative procedures, materials, or technologies that enable the user to select the best option for a specific use. They may contain recommendations to assist the user to make an informed decision based on the desired outcome.
Technical Reports (TR)
TRs document practices, procedures, and technologies. They may include compilations of reference data, historical information, surveys of common practices, bibliographies on special subjects, educational material, and information on health, safety, and environmental protection
We apologise to AMPP for any misunderstandings in this regard and thank them for their valued input.
Following on from the event we are pleased to announce a new Midlands Branch chair Bill Whittaker has become the chair of the Midlands Branch, and he brings a wealth of experience to the role and will be a great asset to our Organisation. He is currently a Cathodic Protection Engineer with Cathodic Protection Engineering Ltd (CPEL). He started in the corrosion industry in 2005 as a technician, and over time progressed into engineering.
Following a brief stint offshore, Bill’s expertise is with Cathodic Protection of onshore pipelines and near shore structures. He has an active involvement in ICORR CP training activities being a member of the CP governing board and the training CP scheme manager.
He holds an MSc in Corrosion Control Engineering from Manchester University, is ICorr CP Level 4 certified (buried and marine sectors), and is also AMPP (formally NACE) CP4 certified.
The branch committee, and recent past chairs Ashley Ingram and Paul Segers, should be thanked for giving their time freely to ICorr, and for their ongoing support to our AGMs. Bill may be contacted at: midlandschair@icorr.org
Birmingham Council chamber.
Professor Alison Davenport opening proceeding.
Lunchtime networking in the Chamberlain room.
Presentation to Winston Shepherd by ICorr President Stephen Tate.
A very welcome ‘face to face’ meeting opportunity after Covid-19 impacts.
Institute News
In February, the branch welcomed Michael Kuhn, PPG, together with colleagues Malcolm Page, PPG, and Andy Nelmes, Bric, for a presentation on, “Nuclear Coatings – Learnings and Experience from Hinkley C”
The Climate Change Committee’s ‘balanced pathway’ to net zero for the UK assumes 10 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear capacity by 2035, yet almost all of the UK’s existing nuclear power plants are due to retire by the end of 2030. The Government in its energy security strategy has already announced ambitions that go beyond replacing retiring plants, these include progressing up to eight new nuclear reactors by 2030 and achieving up to 24 GW by 2050. Construction at NPP Hinkley C is continuing with current plans to build 3 additional plants – Bradwell B, Sizewell C, and potentially Wylfa.
Requirements for Protective Coatings in the Nuclear industry differs to the Oil and Gas industry. The Oil and Gas industry follows owner specifications based on international testing standards such as ISO 12944, Norsok, IOGP S 715 and ISO 19277, with the main focus on corrosion protection, chemical resistance/abrasion resistance and heat resistance of steel, for design life’s of up to 25 years. Whereas the Nuclear industry needs to consider in addition to above criteria, radiation resistance, decontamination characteristics, post-accident resistance for concrete and steel structures, for design life up to 60 years.
EDF, the developer of Hinkley C, has therefore very tightly controlled product qualification processes, and a comprehensive quality control system for coatings to be used in the nuclear industry. Testing carried out includes, toxicology, pull off adhesion (ISO 4624), salt spray (ISO 9227), condensation (ISO 6270), artificial ageing (NFT 30-049), temperature resistance (NFT 51-181), immersion (ISO 2812), abrasion resistance, fire classification (EN 13501), contamination/decontamination (NFT 30-901), resistance to ionizing radiation (NFT 30-903) and resistance to ‘APRP’ (NFT 30-900) – Accident by Loss of Primary Coolant. Coating systems qualified can be found in EDF website.
The challenges in the coating industry for nuclear new builds are that there have been no nuclear plants built in the U.K. since the early 1980’s. As a result of this, the focus of Protective Coatings has been increased in other industries, Oil & Gas, Marine, Aviation, Wind Farms and Construction. Training has been provided within these industries to predominately coat steel. However concrete coatings have been neglected due to the low industry requirements. Hinkley Point C will require 300 – 400 qualified painters to apply coatings to the concrete alone, at present there are very few experienced and qualified painters, and even less inspectors that have knowledge of both Surface Preparation and the Quality Standards required for EDF.
Construction of Hinkley Point.
From L-R, Andy Melmes, Malcolm Page, Michael Kuhn.
Mash Biagioli.
Steve Barke.
Paul Brooks.
Pig runs before, and 2 months after 25ppm application of multifunctional product.
FeS particles built up in a separator shown in yellow box in photo on left resulting in poor separation and water quality as shown in water tank on left hand photo vs images after application of product on the right. FeS particles had been remediated and the separator was functioning properly producing clear water.
Institute News
On Thursday 19th January 2023, the EI Highlands and Islands hosted its annual Joint technical event with the branch, and welcomed Roland Anderson, Axess Corrosion Inc. who gave a talk on ‘Internal Corrosion Monitoring Systems – Enhanced Safety through Innovation’ with a specific focus on operational aspects. Roland has had over 20 years’ experience in the Oil & Gas industry focused on internal corrosion monitoring programmes around the globe, and has established businesses, in many locations including the UK, Middle East, Australia, China, and the USA. Recent years have been primarily focused on product innovation aimed at improving safety.
Mechanical retrieval tool designs for online corrosion monitoring servicing have been largely unchanged in 70+ years, the last major update to tooling being in 1978. Over 300 new ‘heavy duty’ retrievers are introduced into the field each year, and mechanical access fitting design has not changed since the first field installation in 1950.
Over 3000 new access fittings are commissioned each year and it is estimated that over 100,000 are in active service and many others plugged and decommissioned. High pressure retrieval tools and portable isolations are required for device changeouts under pressure (online). Incidents reported with this technology (although very rare relative to number of service operations) range globally from loss of containment, severe injury, and fatalities.
Several incidents over the last 25 years (mainly through incorrect training) had resulted in suspension of online retrievals especially in the North Sea.
An overseas fatality in May 2012 led to many other operators suspending online retrieval of intrusive devices. The fatality occurred during the retrieval of an ER probe installed at the 6 o’clock position on a slug catcher line. The access fitting had not been serviced in over four years. Scaffolding had been built to accommodate a technician, located directly below the retriever to help support the weight.
Life extension of assets, dilution of field experience, (through retirals and people leaving for other cleaner industries) and growing concerns around intrusive monitoring techniques, called for innovation to solve several problems.
Axess Corrosion responded to the new challenges by releasing the Janus™ Safety Guard, having consulted with Shell on the design, and piloted it successfully after the incident. The ‘Janus Guard’ removes the line of fire. It is retrofittable, auto deploying and built into the retrievers, replacing original components. The Janus Range provides retrofittable guards for telescoping and non-telescoping retrievers. Axess retrieval tools, with the guard attached, have been made lighter overall compared to other older devices without the guard. They are low cost, low maintenance and do not require re-certification
of technicians.
Janus Access fittings can be safer, and until now double isolation valves depended on a single O-ring between process and environment, however the Janus fittings incorporate two additional sealing faces, ensuring double isolation valves have double seals and the external threads are protected from the environment. Existing service valves can be adapted to realise these benefits at low cost.
Janus Type fittings have the following key advantages:
• Functionality applies to both mechanical and hydraulic system options.
• Janus is presently the only access fitting with a double seal and double isolation between process and environment.
• The radial sealing surface provides an additional seal for the service valve and the pressure retaining cover. This serves to seal the external threads from the environment with the O-ring carefully positioned on the access fitting.
In April 2022, Shell successfully completed a retrieval with the Janus™ tool, where retrieval of strip coupons installed at the high debris risk six o’clock position on a slug catcher line was completed. The access fitting had not been serviced in over four years due to the LFI, (learnings from incident) and subsequent Risk Assessment. The location was identified as a valuable data point for the integrity programme at QGTL (Qatar – Gas to Liquids) and the similarity to the LFI location was obvious. Other client projects are also reported to have received benefits, for example, ConocoPhillips now use the Janus modified retrieval tool on over 70% of its (CM) retrievals in Alaska, and over 2000 successful (CM) retrievals were conducted throughout 2022, with service technicians now feeling protected and secure. Optimised stroke lengths have reduced the overall weight of tools, and engagement of the service team has resulted in further tool enhancements and revisions.
Modified Janus™ Range offering:
• Applies to legacy tools to make them safer.
• Janus™ Safety Guard * – Finalist for 2023 AMPP Innovation Awards – 2023 Finalists (webflow.io)
• Minimal changes to existing (CM) retrievals procedures
• The outcomes of risk assessment studies conducted by energy operators have changed dramatically with new tool modifications deemed positive.
*Patents pending through USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) protected.
An online ‘Plug & Abandon’ solution for redundant access fittings is available now along with devices for repurposing fittings for alternative uses, such as chemical injection. Conversion of access fittings to chemical injection points allows them to be serviced under pressure and are a low-cost piping modification. Additionally, there is no bulky flanged side tee, or troublesome NPT side connections, and the chemicals are isolated from access fitting material.
This company has also developed an improved Double Seal / Double Isolation device for use with a Janus type Access ‘intrusive’ fitting.
On Tuesday 28th February 2023, the branch meeting welcomed Raza Amin of Ankaa Consulting (Kuala Lumpur) and previously of GL Noble Denton, who gave a talk entitled ‘Enterprise Digital Solution for Asset Integrity Management’.
Mr. Amin has had 29 years of experience in engineering, technical consulting and advisory, training, and management. He has been responsible for leading safety and process engineering projects for the offshore oil and gas platforms and Mobile Offshore Drilling Units (MODUs), onshore gas processing plants, chemical plants, and refineries. He has worked on oil and gas facilities throughout Europe, Middle East, Africa, the Far East, and the Indian sub-continent.
Currently, he is Managing Director of Ankaa Consulting, concurrently taking the role as Asset Integrity Director and Process Safety Advisor. He manages projects in various disciplines, such as Integrity Operating Windows (IOW), Life Extension Studies (LES) for Offshore Assets, Risk Based Inspection (RBI) Assessments for Static Equipment, Piping, Pressure Relief Devices, Structures and Subsea Pipelines & Risers, Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), Instrument Safety Integrity Level (SIL), Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA), and also oversees the implementation of Alpha-Phe, a modern and comprehensive cloud-based database application module for the entire Asset Integrity Management System of Petrochemical industries.
Raza emphasised that while everyone is aware that we are in the digital age, the ambitions of a company and the means at its disposal to fully practice digital solutions are still often insufficient and / or inadequate. When controlled appropriately, data can yield the insights that make it more valuable than ‘black gold. Databases contain millions of records extracted through the various system interfaces used by operating companies that can enable understanding of complex relationships between many variables interactively.
Raza made clear that in today’s fast changing business landscape and aging assets, any Asset Integrity Management (AIM) digital solution needs to have an inherent capability to adopt to these changes – so a flexible system configuration approach is a necessary requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
• The system needs custom-built software which is ‘best in class’ having a single corporate system for all upstream and downstream assets, providing common understanding across all businesses.
• The software system must be’ holistic in approach using next generation technology, so it significantly reduces the cost associated with maintaining fragmented systems.
• It needs a complete system with AIM solution for every asset class and associated equipment, which is built on the latest codes, standards, industry guidelines and best practices, including ISO 55000.
He argued that with such a system in place it would be possible to improve work processes to achieve optimum work efficiency, communication between departments, and improve efficiency by eliminating duplication of work.
In the need for Digital Asset Integrity, Raza identified the fundamental problem in industry is that we have created too many data silos over years. We have seen so many different software systems and spreadsheets for AIMS, PIMS, SIMS, IOW, FFS, IDMS, and ANOMALIES. The key concern was that engineers presently manually fetch information from each system to make decisions and visualise overall health of an asset.
The need for a Digital AIMS to cover ‘day to day’ operations was put down to having improper workflow, leading to poor accountability. The various ‘day to day’ problems encountered without a system-based workflow can lead to following:
• No accountability.
• No audit trail.
• Unable to identify bottlenecks in the process.
• Unaware of the constraints – not seeing who missed out on an action.
And suggested solutions included:
• Generate time-based audit trails.
• Implement integrated workflow for each data points with seamless integration.
• Inform responsible party for action through notification.
• Utilise technology to manage accountability.
Digital AIMS avoids duplication of data / process / efforts.
Other issues identified:
• Difficulty in inspection planning that is time consuming leading to too many overdue actions.
• Multiple contractors managing various Integrity, inspection and reporting activities for different asset types with inconsistency in reporting.
• Same process done in different systems, hard to maintain multiple systems to improve processes.
Other suggested solutions:
• Require a common platform for work packs.
• Need to improve the interface between different parties by centralising and sharing information.
• Inspection reporting is required directly into the Data platform. Need to reduce data entry errors, perform QA/QC.
Razo concluded, that the presented integration platform helps interfacing the AIM system with the existing corporate systems and operational data systems to achieve continuous update of AIMS models, helps operators with up-to-date health status of the assets in the form of KPIs, and operators can then take timely key decisions on asset integrity. This type of system can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, which is powerful, robust, and fast module development platform. It meets all the modern features and functionality that is needed to measure the technical integrity of oil and gas facilities smoothly. With such a solution, i.e. a dedicated system that meets the overall company AIM requirements, and that covers the entire Asset Integrity work process and all disciplines. Analytics specific to each discipline then becomes possible and meaningful.
This presentation cleverly highlighted the holistic approach to managing Asset Integrity Management data, and raised many interesting questions from attendees in the Q&A session that followed afterwards.
Two former branch members are now thriving in the Middle East, Hooman Takhtechian has recently started a new position as Lead Corrosion Engineer at Bureau Veritas Group in Abu Dhabi, and Amir Attarchi who is now based in Qatar, and working as Senior Principal Metallurgy Engineer on NOC Ruya FEED project.
Presently there are 3 vacancies on the ICorr Aberdeen committee, for which invitations are invited to pursue officer roles. All enquires please to the branch chair, itsejaz@yahoo.com.
The branch has a very busy programme ahead and is pleased to announce the following upcoming events, for which registration details will be sent to all ICorr members nearer to event time:
On 25th April 2023, the branch has scheduled its 1-day Marine Corrosion Forum conference, a joint ICorr Aberdeen / Marine Corrosion Forum event. There is also an industrial visit to ICR in the evening. Places are limited for this event.
In May 2023, the scheduled events are, the joint ICorr / MCF CUI webinar week, Monday 15th to Friday 19th May [Lunch time events,12:00-13:00 each day], and a joint ICorr / AMPP technical session on Friday 19th May (evening), with a presentation by David Wickam and Chris Fyfe of AkzoNobel entitled: “Maintenance and Repair Solutions for Damaged or Aged PFP”.
Further Information about the branch, and past presentations, can be found on the website page: Aberdeen Branch – Institute of Corrosion (icorr.org), and to join the branch mailing list, please contact: icorrabz@gmail.com
Abstracts of potential papers for the branch technical programme are always welcome, and anyone wishing to present should prepare an abstract and correspond soonest with the branch Vice Chair – Adesiji Anjorin, anjorin@gmail.com, who is preparing the 2023/2024 events schedule.
Initial launch of online corrosion monitoring (CM) retrieval tools.
Example of thread debris – blocked pressure equalisation channel.
Fitting abandonment filling (by HP injection process).
Fitting conversion to chemical injection point.
Holistic Approach to Asset Management.
Work Elements of Asset Management.
Integration Areas of Asset Management.
Institute News
The Division has announced with great pleasure that the next recipient of the UR Evans award, which will be presented at the 64th Corrosion Science Symposium (CSS), will be Prof Nick Birbilis.
Prof Birbilis has been a champion of corrosion education throughout his career with seminal contributions in many areas related to the discipline. He is currently the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. Previously he was the Head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Woodside Innovation Chair at Monash University. His research interests include the broad areas of corrosion and corrosion control. His current focus is centred on microstructure-corrosion relationships, exploring the metallurgical factors that dictate localised corrosion initiation and propagation.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering in 2001, and a PhD in 2004 (both from Monash). He was a postdoctoral researcher at Ohio State University before joining the Monash University staff. More broadly, he has worked on materials characterisation, and the use of advanced manufacturing for the development of more sustainable and durable materials, including bio-inspired and hybrid materials. He has been Associate Editor of Electrochimica Acta since 2010, and has been active in several societies, including the ISE, ECS and NACE. Nick has received several awards and presented numerous invited lectures. He is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and a Fellow of NACE. In 2016, Nick was awarded the ‘Woodside Innovation Chair’ at Monash, an industrially funded personal chair associated with durability of next generation materials.
The 64th CSS will once again join the Electrochem2023 meeting at the University of Bristol, on 11th and 12th September 2023.
Blogs
Preserving the Integrity of ICorr’s Professional Membership
The Professional Assessment Committee (PAC) has a crucial role to play in how the Institute of Corrosion operates as an organization. It’s critical that we correctly evaluate and assess applications for professional membership of the Institute, chartered scientist, and cathodic protection personnel certification – this is the role handed down to PAC.
Structure of PAC
The PAC consists of a Chair and at least five other members, though committee numbers are limited to a maximum of 10.
The Chair is nominated by the Council of the Institute of Corrosion (ICorr). Members of the committee may be nominated by any Professional Member of ICorr, and nominees should be a Professional Member of ICorr. They should also have extensive experience in the corrosion industry or relevant academia.
Once accepted as a member of PAC, a nominee will usually serve a normal term of four years – though any PAC member is eligible for re-nomination. The Chair’s normal term is also four years, though he or she may also be re-nominated for a further term of office.
Roles and Responsibilities of PAC
The PAC is responsible for assessing all applications for Professional Membership of ICorr (TICorr, MICorr, and FICorr). They are also responsible for evaluating applications for Chartered Scientist and, via the cathodic protection sub-committee, Cathodic Protection Personnel Certification.
Among its prime responsibilities is to ensure that all applications are treated confidentially and in compliance with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements. This includes eliminating any potential unconscious bias.
All members are obliged to act in accordance with Data Protection Regulations. For example, no information provided by an applicant will be discussed or passed on to any third party.
How PAC Works
The first job of Pac is to ensure that applications comply with ICorr’s membership regulations:
- Education, training, and experience is appropriate to the applied-for grade of membership
- The application is accompanied by two references
- At least one reference is from an existing Professional Member of ICorr, though in exceptional circumstances appropriately certificated and qualified members of other bodies may be acceptable at the discretion of the Chair
Once confirmed that the application for Professional Membership is compliant with these requirements, it is sent to three PAC members for assessment. None of these three may be a referee of the applicant. The process then progresses as follows:
- The three members assess the applicant independently, and make a recommendation of suitability.
- If the recommendation is unanimous, the application is approved. If this is not the case, the PAC Chair adjudicates the decision. If required, the President of ICorr may be called upon to help in this process.
- The Chair then recommends whatever action is necessary. For example, if a meeting with the applicant is needed to discuss the application and address any concerns that the assessors have.
- At the end of this process, the Chair prepares a report of approved applications, and this is presented to the Council for approval. Certificates of Professional Membership are signed by the President and sent to the new Professional Members.
- Announcements are made in Corrosion Management magazine, unless requested otherwise.
Commonly, all communication between the members of PAC takes place either by email or post, with the PAC only meeting in person or online at the discretion of the Chair.
An applicant’s files are only retained for record purposes at Head Office, held in a member file and retained for no longer than five years after leaving ICorr.
Membership regulations and the procedures employed by PAC are reviewed and updated every 12 months, following discussions with the Professional Assessors and President and subject to their approval.
Could you play a part in PAC?
As a not-for-profit organization, the Institute of Corrosion is run by its members for the benefit of its members. The PAC has an essential role to play in delivering our mission and ensuring that the Institute aligns with its values.
PAC’s effectiveness depends upon its members. At the time of writing, its membership is close to the maximum number, but new assessors are always welcome. If you have the relevant experience and qualifications, are a Professional Member of ICorr, and would like to be considered as an assessor, please email the current PAC Chair, Paul Lambert.
