• 3.2   Robin Oakley (QinetiQ) asked for any experience of typical grain size for annealed 70/30 copper-nickel tube material. Tubes have been encountered with hardnesses of 130-150HV and grain sizes of 10-15 micrometers. Offers were made by some of the attending members to check their records for relevant copper-nickel tube microstructures and hardnesses.

• 3.3   Clive Tuck (Langley Alloys) raised a question to find out people’s experience of welding superduplex stainless steels to the NORSOK requirements, particularly regarding passing the G48A corrosion test at a temperature of 40°C. 

  One of the companies present had experienced failure of welds to meet this requirement and it was generally agreed that the corrosion test was the most difficult one to pass.  It was found that the results obtained were very dependent on welder’s skill and experience, thus it was essential that welders were well trained.  Suggested welding techniques to use to get best results were to keep heat input low, ensure that the root gap is sufficiently wide to give good penetration and not to be stingy with the amount of filler metal used.  Use of argon with a 2% nitrogen addition was also found to be beneficial.

4.1‘What Reliability Engineers need to know about Corrosion’, John Strutt, Atkins Boreas Consulting

The main meeting closed at approximately 2.45pm, and was immediately followed by the Annual General Meeting.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING:

1.           APOLOGIES

In this, my last Chairman’s report, I am pleased to say that the Marine Corrosion Forum has had another successful year in terms of both activity and membership.  Most notably, as a result of the Edinburgh Conference, held in 2006, several high calibre organisations have now joined and, under new Chairmanship, the scene is set for the Marine Corrosion Forum to have a bright and valuable future. The organisation has also entered the international arena through its recent membership of the World Corrosion Organisation. 

During the year, a wide variety of topics have been covered in the one-day meetings including coatings, copper alloys, stainless steels, inhibitors, welding, test methods, cathodic protection and corrosion case studies.  We were pleased invite Keynote speakers to two of the meetings.  Bopinder Phull gave a very informative presentation about the long term performance of different materials at the LeQue marine exposure test sites and Norman Cooper of BAe Systems spoke about the development of high corrosion resistance copper alloys and BAe’s successful use of steel overlaid with cupronickel weld metal.  The idea of invited Keynote speakers has worked very well, and next year it is planned to have four such presenters. 

The meetings have been well attended, and, once again, we were able to successfully share the Aberdeen meeting with the Aberdeen branch of the Institute of Corrosion.  Next year, we are planning to extend this meeting to include lunch, as it does present a good opportunity to take advantage of the high level of interest in marine corrosion in that area.  As well as the formal presentations, the informal Open Forum sessions at the meetings have been an effective source of information and have been particularly well utilised this year. 

The three-year PhD project on Erosion-Corrosion sponsored by the MCF and six of its member companies came to a successful conclusion with an empirical model being developed which has been demonstrated to predict erosion-corrosion rates for a stainless steel material under varying flow, solids content and temperature conditions.  Further development of this model looks feasible and a means to continue this type of MCF-sponsored project is being sought. 

In order to promote the availability of corrosion testing services offered by MCF members, a directory of members test laboratories has been prepared.  This is now available on the MCF website and it will be kept updated so that it gives the latest information.  The general benefits of the website and the Metadex survey, with a recently expanded scope have continued to be evident to all members.   

7.      SECRETARIAT’S REPORT    

·     At the end of 2007 the membership stood at 30, an increase of 3 over 2006.  We lost 3 members due to changes of direction within the companies: Sheffield Testing, Kellogg, Brown and Root, and Cole and Swallow. We gained one member due to company reorganisation: Clyde Pumps, which was previously Weir Pumps.5 companies joined or re-joined us: Corrintec, CAPCIS, Det Norske Veritas, Shell and Vetco Gray.  The latter four had been conference members in 2006, having joined for our Edinburgh conference.  A list of members will be sent out, as usual, with the January mailing.

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