The second of the series of YEP-AMPP Journals, by Eilidh Macdonald, 2022 YEP Winner.
“ICorr’’s YEP was a fantastic programme to be a part of, with the unforgettable experience of attending the AMPP Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado. I’d highly recommend this programme to any young professionals who are interested in joining the corrosion industry”.
Here is my personal
AMPP diary.
Saturday 18th March 2023
Our trip truly commenced on Saturday, after recovering from the jet lag of the ~12 hour journey to Denver, Colorado. We attended the first (and only in-person) session of the AMPP Members Leadership Development Programme (MLDP). The five of us representing ICorr were joined by nine other participants hailing from various states in the US. The entire day was incredibly useful, with engaging and insightful sessions throughout the day.
In the morning, we were introduced to various members of the AMPP Board of Directors, which showed how interested they are in the next generation of engineers in the industry, just as ICorr is. We covered a variety of topics and gained a more in-depth view of the AMPP business model and strategic plans with Kim Ray and Lauren Blachman. We also participated in a team building activity after becoming familiar with the Drexler-Sibbet team performance model. This was a great way to get involved with other participants and build connections with them. The ‘carpet maze’ required us to work as a team to figure out the correct route to cross the mat without being able to talk to each other within a limited time frame. This exercise was a practical way to teach us certain things that are directly applicable to the problems we face in a professional setting. Often, we just see our end goal, but to achieve it, mistakes will be made, side steps will need to be taken, and sometimes you even need to go backwards—it’s never just a straight route.
In the afternoon, Phil Reynolds took us through a captivating session on Emotional intelligence, and it was interesting to become aware of our personal areas of development and be given meaningful advice on how to improve them. During this introduction session, we were also assigned groups, either relating to ‘Workforce’, ‘Knowledge’ or ‘Advocacy’ which we will continue also received an invitation to the Board of Director’s Opening Reception.
After being at the first session of the AMPP MLDP that day, it was great to be able to recognise some of the faces we had seen throughout the day and get to know the other participants of the programme better.
Sunday 19th March 2023
On Sunday, the conference officially started at the Colorado Convention Centre. The exhibition hall was still being set up and had not been opened at this point. However, there were plenty of presentations and discussions to attend throughout the day.
The day seemed to continue around the theme of coatings for me, which was ideal. The other main presentation I attended this day was focused on Maintenance painting/repairs. It was interesting as it was based on issues faced by the American Department of Defence, which is quite different from the work I do for Subsea 7 in coating systems. It also covered the maintenance and repair of structures in onshore corrosive environments, such as bridges, and it was very good to learn about the typical maintenance programme structure followed in the industry and also the issue of overcoating with incompatible materials. The seminar also briefly covered a small section on 1-coat systems, which I found interesting as I haven’t had any involvement with these before
I soon realised just how busy this conference was when I went to try and go to the surface preparation lectures—there wasn’t even standing room left. Although it meant I missed out on learning more about this topic, I headed to the presentations given on internal corrosion to learn more about this area instead. There was a presentation on the Investigation of Spring Failures in the North Sea. I found it interesting to have a practical case, and throughout the conference I was much more interested in the ‘real-life’ cases compared to the theoretical paper studies that were presented. Although these were also very insightful, the studies based on real scenarios seemed more aligned and applicable to the work I perform.
After a full day of lectures and presentations, we headed along to the opening ceremony of the event, which was sponsored by Carboline. Again, I couldn’t get over the number of people who were attending the conference. It felt great to be surrounded by so many others who are passionate and like-minded about corrosion. Once the opening reception was finished, we went for dinner, and, I think, for all of us, it was our first-time trying Denver style deep-dish pizza. Truly phenomenal – the Americans do it so well.
Monday 20th March 2023
Having found my bearings around the Colorado Convention Centre on Sunday, and now understanding better the format of the lectures the previous day, I was able to take full advantage of what was on offer. I attended various presentations, including Premature Coating Failures, which went through real case studies, and the presenter encouraged the audience to provide their thoughts before going through what had happened. It was very engaging and also covered common failures in different materials and environments. I found the failures in concrete to be interesting, as this is a material that I’ve not had much experience with yet in my career.
The next presentation I attended was ‘Coatings Failures investigations – Finding the Cause. This also went through case studies, but with a different view than the last. It also focused on the importance of ensuring the specifications are always followed correctly, and the responsibilities of the different parties in the scenarios, such as the manufacturers, suppliers, applicators, contractors, and clients.
Later, I attended a presentation on ‘Materials Selection and Cost Control’. It was based on the comparison of several bridges and their associated CAPEX and OPEX costs. It highlighted the superiority of duplex coating systems, even though they had considerably higher CAPEX costs, the maintenance was much lower, resulting in them actually being far cheaper and lasting three times longer than paint systems. Another lecture I attended on Monday was on ‘Internal ICCP of Offshore Wind Monopile Foundations’. I’ve only had a little experience with offshore wind structures, focusing on sacrificial anodes, so it was interesting to learn more about the application of ICCP in this industry. The presenter went through different systems and case studies. It was interesting to understand the evolution of the system in this industry, where closed systems were originally used, Open systems are generally more preferred to allow free flow of water to the internal sections, using current trends to maximise the placement of ‘refreshment’ holes.
In the evening, we attended the AMPP Exhibition Grand Opening. There were 376 exhibitors covering all aspects of the corrosion industry, It was truly amazing to see the enormity and scale of the exhibition and what it had to offer.
After the official Exhibition opening, we went for a lovely dinner with various other senior members of ICorr who had also made the long trip to Denver for the conference. It was great to meet familiar faces that I had only seen before through Virtual Meetings and have a good chat about all things corrosion and otherwise.
Tuesday 21st March 2023
On Tuesday I again set out to attend lectures on different subject matters. My first presentation of the day was, ‘Innovative Approaches for Mitigation and Monitoring of Microbial Induced Corrosion in Seawater’. This highlighted the findings of a technical paper and I found it insightful to learn more about the upcoming and novel approaches being used for this prevalent issue.
I also attended a lecture given on the ‘Alternative CRA Materials for Line Pipe application’. I found it interesting as the speaker discussed challenging the CRA thicknesses provided in standards and doing further testing to make this value less conservative to reduce CRA material, as well as mentioning different CRA materials from the typically seen nickel-based alloys.
Subsequently l attended a presentation on ‘Predicting the enhanced effects of coating deterioration in marine environments’. Again, this was based on a technical paper which was much different to the lectures I had attended in the previous days. It was interesting to see the work being done to try and fully understand certain phenomena witnessed from organic coatings systems. The presenter explained the test result data of the deterioration in detail and highlighted the next steps they would take in experiments.
Later I went to a lecture on ‘The Myths of Insulation Treatments and CUI – What Works and What Doesn’t’. I was very keen to attend this one as my Masters dissertation was based on CUI, and the presentation even had a section on the same test method I had studied. It discussed and compared different insulation systems and their associated pros and cons when it came to CUI, and the importance of corrosion prevention being treated as a complete system approach of the cladding, insulation material and coating. After a full day at the conference it was time to get ready for the EMERG Leaders Awards Ceremony at the Filmore in Denver, sponsored by BP. The night was absolutely fantastic and we were invited on stage to receive our ICorr YEP awards from Stephen. It was also great to celebrate the achievement with the friends we had made on the MDLP earlier in the week, some of whom were also receiving awards that night. The atmosphere, the band, the food (and drinks!) were great. The night was definitely my highlight of the trip.
Wednesday 22nd March 2023
I spent the majority of my Wednesday going around the Exhibition Hall and talking to lots of different stalls. There were many large companies and it was great to talk to their representatives about upcoming technologies and processes. It was an ideal opportunity to ask questions directly and gain the right contacts for questions that may arise in the future. The exhibition hall also had a practical section to show coatings and CP testing and monitoring systems which was great to learn more about by getting to use it and understand it better.
Several people we had met at the MLDP were presenting their posters at the Student Poster Session, so it was great to talk to them in more detail about their specialised areas and thesis projects.
The work they had all put into their posters was extraordinary, and it was good to see so many other young people so interested in the corrosion industry. Unfortunately, none of us were lucky enough to win the Harley Davidson that was up for grabs! In the evening, we met with a few friends made over the course of the week for some final goodbyes over bowling and arcade games.
Thursday 23rd March 2023
Thursday was sadly my final day in Denver, as I was leaving in the afternoon. Denver had an electric feeling to it. AMPP 23 was a truly unforgettable experience with so many amazing memories made with fantastic people.
In the Thursday morning I still had a little time left to cram in a couple of presentations including ‘Susceptibility of martensitic steels to hydrogen embrittlement’. This isn’t an area I was as familiar with but it was interesting to learn which material properties increase the risk of hydrogen embrittlement and why this is the case. Following on from this I attended a presentation called ‘It’s Stainless Steel, we don’t
need to worry…right?’ It was interesting to learn of case studies which magnified the point that management plans need to be implemented regardless.
After the morning sessions, it was time for me to say my goodbyes with the rest of the YEP team over some lunch before I headed to the airport. It was great to meet everyone and have such a valuable experience which has helped me to become a better engineer.
Thank you so much to ICorr and to BP for the opportunity to attend the AMPP Leadership course and Conference, I am incredibly grateful.
CAPTIONS:
Eilidh Macdonald – 2022 YEP Winner.
