The branch has always been active in organising technical talks, annual conferences, industrial visits as well as collaborations with other institutes in various subjects that overlap with corrosion management. On the technical aspect, attending the monthly events gives members a chance to gain perspective on how others approach their work and to stay up to date with the current corrosion management tools. Apart from gaining knowledge, it is a perfect setting to get out of the rut of a normal workday and to network with other like-minded people. Also, you never know if you could be sitting next to a prospective employer, or client!
In addition to the technical aspects, the branch also supports, and helps, young engineers progress their careers, in line with ICorr values, and the latest addition to the branch committee, Mei Ling Cheah, is a perfect example of this.
Mei Ling Cheah began her higher education in 2008, at the University of Science, Malaysia gaining a BEng (Hons) in Materials Engineering, followed by Post-Graduate studies at The University of Manchester and the award of Master of Science (MSc) in Corrosion Control Engineering in 2013. She then started work immediately as a graduate Corrosion Engineer at CAN (Offshore) Ltd., Aberdeen, acting as the focal point for all integrity and corrosion matters for Bluewater’s FPSO. She was responsible for the delivery of RBI, pressure system inspection work scopes, fitness for service assessments, and technical reports outlining corrosion related issues, ensuring the constant update of risk-based assessments for all integrity related offshore facilities, and development of shutdown scenarios.
The following 3 year chapter in her life took her to Lloyd’s Register Aberdeen, working as a Corrosion Engineer on asset life extension assessments for SABIC petrochemical plant static equipment and piping, for sites at Teesside (UK), Mount Vernon (USA), Burkville (USA) and Petrokemya North & South (KSA). Other overseas related projects at Lloyd’s included RBI for the S-Chem (Saudi) petrochemical refinery, and a corrosion study for the ZADCO Sulphate Reducing Plant, where the scope of work included static equipment and piping criticality assessment and generating inspection plan for all static equipment, piping and PSV’s. As well as dealing with a number of UK offshore facilities, new experiences of pipeline corrosion management were gained, including cathodic protection reviews and developing corrosion control schemes. Most recently she joined the Aberdeen based IMRANDD Asset Integrity Management Firm, where she provides ongoing engineering support for Chrysaor’s offshore assets – Armada, Lomond and North Everest.
According to Mei Ling, her journey into the field of corrosion started with her fascination on what was known as the greatest technological prediction for half a century, Moore’s Law – cramming more transistors onto integrated circuit boards which lead to the age of computing and personal mobile devices. One of the challenges of keeping up with Moore’s Law was around the limitations with materials science, which decided her to study Materials Engineering at university. It was during this when they had a module on energy storage and battery systems that got her interested in the subject of electrochemistry. The process in a battery and corrosion of steel are chemically similar.
Mei Ling’s CV is typical of new corrosion engineers, in that experienced engineers in the branch are supporting her as she works toward Chartered status. In addition, Mei Ling is assisting Young ICorr nationally under chair, Caroline Allanach.
If you are a newly qualified engineer working the corrosion protection industry, then, just as with Mei Ling, your local branch can support you in your career development. A list of branch contacts can be found on the diary page of this magazine.
As usual, full details of future Aberdeen branch events can be found on the diary page of this magazine and on the ICorr Website, or by contacting, ICorrABZ@gmail.com. Copies of the majority of past branch presentations can be found at, https://www.icorr.org/aberdeen/, and a photo gallery for all Aberdeen events can also be found at, https://sites.google.com/site/icorrabz/event-gallery.
It should be noted that the planned ‘Industrial visit (Oceaneering), an Alternative/Interactive Industrial Event’, will now take place on 15thOctober 2020.
