Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on 26 January 2005 at Lloyd’s Register, 71 Fenchurch Street, London.

  PERSONS PRESENT

The Chairman, Clive Tuck, opened the meeting at 11:00 am.

 1    MCF NEWS

1.1          Members: Since the last meeting we have had two more members – Noel Village (Steel Founder) and Sheffield Testing.  Also, Aker Kvaerner are in the process of rejoining. 

1.2          Project:  The MCF-sponsored, joint-industry project has got off to a good start.  There are currently eight companies involved in the project, which was agreed by the MCF membership to be on the subject of erosion-corrosion.  The aim of the three year PhD programme is to produce a model for erosion-corrosion which includes the variables flow rate, solids content, temperature and pH.  Eight materials are being tested in the project.  

The work is being undertaken by Prof. Anne Neville’s group, at the University of Leeds.  A keen student has been found and a successful initial meeting of all those involved was held at Leeds in November. 

1.3          Advertising:  The Management Committee has proposed that the MCF produce some business cards which are to be in the form of card-shaped CDs.  These will contain an illustrated PowerPoint presentation about the Forum.  They will be available shortly and will hopefully be very suitable for members to mail out, or to take to any meetings they are going to, in order to introduce prospective members to the MCF.  Further photographs for use in the presentation would be welcomed by the Secretariat.

2.  TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS

2.1    ‘Lean Duplex Stainless Steels’, Chris Baxter (Outokumpu Stainless)

2.2   'New Magnesium Alloy Technology', Nick Jeal & Paul Lyon (Magnesium- Elektron)

3.        Open Forum  

3.1    Matthew Peet on Sheffield Testing (rejoining after a two-year break)  -  a short description of the history and work of the Sheffield Testing Laboratories was given. 

3.2  Charlie Barraclough (Commtech Associates): 

I would like to introduce the need for a recognised welding acceptance standard for clad pipe, equipment and valves etc.  I have continual problems with suppliers applying API, ASME and BS 4515/EN Codes which allow quite large indications on clad surfaces (ASME VIII allows a 3/16ths inch indication) or lack of root penetration defects where these are not fit for purpose for corrosion reasons.  Please contact me if you wish to discuss this issue.    

4.  TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS continued. 

4.1      'Seawater Materials in the Oil and Gas Sector', Doug Stannard (Kellogg, Brown & Root)

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING:

1.           APOLOGIES

2.      MINUTES OF LAST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (21 January 2004)

      These were accepted as a true record of that meeting.

3.   MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES

      None.

4.   ELECTION OF OFFICERS/COMMITTEE  

Clive Tuck (Langley Alloys, Meighs) was standing again for the position of Chairman, and Phil Dent (Bodycote) for the position of Vice-Chairman.   The meeting agreed to accept both of these. 

5.   CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

The Marine Corrosion Forum has had a particularly active year.  As well as the traditional meetings organised throughout the past year, there have been two innovations – the introduction of Keynote speakers to meetings and the setting up of a sponsored research project at Leeds University. 

Four MCF meetings were held during the year and Keynote speakers were present at two of them.  Thomas Sydberger (DNV) gave a definitive presentation on DNV recommended practices for submarine pipelines at the Aberdeen meeting and, at the October meeting, Derek Milliams of Advanced Corrosion Management Services, spoke very informatively on the subject of corrosion management.   The Aberdeen meeting again had a high attendance and gave an opportunity to collaborate with the Institute of Corrosion Aberdeen branch by jointly arranging to combine the MCF afternoon meeting with their monthly evening meeting.   We again found that both organisations benefited from this and we are due to hold another such meeting in April this year. 

The October meeting was also in the nature of a collaboration, this time with the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, who arranged for David Tighe-Ford to give an informative presentation on the modelling of marine CP systems. 

During the past year there has been a more varied selection of topics presented than has generally been the case before.  As with previous years, the subject of materials and materials selection was the most well represented.  However, there were also several presentations on cathodic protection, corrosion management and coatings.  This gave a broader scope to the meetings and, we trust, has allowed them to have been better able to satisfy the interests of both existing members and prospective members. Other subjects covered during the year and which had not been well represented before were corrosion test methods and corrosion information technology.   Attendance at the meetings has continued to be good which has allowed members to take advantage of a high level of information exchange. 

I am pleased to say that, after a break of ten years, the MCF has once again become the instigator and sponsor of a jointly-funded research programme.  Eight companies are currently involved in the project, which was chosen by the membership of the MCF to be on the subject of erosion/corrosion.  The three-year research programme is being carried out under Professor Anne Neville at Leeds University with the aim of developing a model for erosion/corrosion of materials in marine conditions which takes into account flow rate, solids content and temperature.  A keen student has been found to carry out the work and all the participants met for a very productive meeting to initiate the project in November.  Judging from the excellent facilities at Leeds and the enthusiasm of the participants it is certain that the collaborative venture will prove to be a great success. 

The MCF website and Metadex survey have continued benefit membership throughout the year.  At the start of the year, it was found that the Metadex survey could no longer be undertaken by the Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerology (as it had been for a number of years) and it is now carried out for us by the Royal Institute of Chemistry.  As the search criteria were somewhat modified in this change, it would be useful if the members would indicate if the subject areas of particular interest to them are still adequately covered. 

I will conclude by expressing my thanks all the Committee Members for their dedication and support throughout the year.  As is demonstrated by the past year, their diligence and enthusiasm results in valuable meetings and a continuing programme designed to give maximum benefit to members.  

6.      SECRETARIAT’S REPORT    

·      At the end of 2004 the membership stood at 25.  We lost Aker Kvaerner, CAPCIS, iicorr (formerly CorrOcean), Oceaneering and Special Metals, mainly due to changes of direction within these companies, but have gained Commtech Associates, Corrosion Control Services Ltd and Noel Village (Steel Founders) Ltd.  Also, at the start of 2005, Sheffield Testing Laboratories have rejoined, after a couple of years break, which brings the membership to 26.  Aker Kvaerner are also in the process of rejoining. 

·      The end of year accounts were detailed for members.  Copies are sent to members with the printed minutes. 

·      The Management Committee have decided to leave the 2005 subscription fees at the same levels as in 2004.

The Full membership fees are therefore £640, but with a £100 discount for those companies that pay by 1^st May 2005. 

Overseas membership and the new Sole Trader membership will be £400 with a similar £100 reduction for prompt payment.  Overseas payments not in sterling will incur a charge of £50 to cover our bank costs.  

The facility for payment by credit card using the web-based PalPay will again be offered, at a charge of £25 to cover costs.

·      CPD certificates continue to be available at meetings, and we have been pleased to have the recognition of IoM3 and IMarEST for these.

·      The MCF web-site continues to provide a contact point.  Links on the site enable interested parties to request further information about the MCF, or to request an invitation to a meeting.

·      A search facility has been added, to enable site visitors to search for occurrences of chosen words.  This has been used regularly.  Recent popular search terms have been: “corrosion, pitting, copper, titanium, stainless steel, inter-tidal, duplex, acoustic & erosion”.  Further suggestions for improvements to the site are welcomed, as are any appropriate pictures or diagrams that could be used to add interest to the pages.

·       All available abstracts of presentations going back to the early days of the MCF are now available on the site, while the News page gives details of conferences and other items likely to be of interest to members.  Again, further items are always welcomed.

7.      APPROVAL OF ACCOUNTS FOR 2004

 The accounts were passed as correct. 

8.      ANY OTHER BUSINESS