Corrosion issues continue to make headlines

Corrosion issues continue to make headlines

A few more corrosion issues that made the news this month:

  1. GM Announces Recall of More than Half a Million More Vehicles, Halts Some Deliveries
  2. Concrete Credence: More Bay Bridge Woes May Validate Concerns of Span’s #1 Critic
  3. Improving safety on North America’s “122-inch pipeline

GM Recalls The first article is about yet another recall by embattled GM as they announced the recall of over 500,000 cars.   Part of that recall involved 89,294 Chevrolet Sparks model years 2013 to 2015.  Apparently there is a corrosion risk causing the secondary hood latch striker to get stuck in the open position, which could cause hoods to open unexpectedly.  GM will be replacing the latches with a new part with superior corrosion protection.

More Bridge Woes The article reviews a number of design and construction flaws of the More Bay Bridge in  Berkeley California.  The problems are numerous but one of the many issues is that most of the span support bolts are under water and are in danger of corrosion.    The issue is that the bolts were plated with hot zinc, which according to Engineering Professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl is a disastrous choice because the coating process causes hydrogen embrittlement.

122 inch pipeline The core issue in the article is that tankers used to transport crude oil across the US are corroding at an alarming rate.   Since tanker cars have been successfully used to transport oil for 100 years with very little corrosion problem many were wondering why the problem now.   The basic reason is that the content of the crude oil has changed and it has lost its ability to passivate the steel liners on tanks.  The industry is now searching for methods to improve corrosion protection on tanks.  The tankers are referred to as 122 inch pipeline because that is the internal diameter of a typical tanker car.

2.2 trillion dollars are spent on a worldwide basis every year dealing with corrosion. Cortec is a company focused on corrosion inhibiting products and processes.  They continue to do extensive research on corrosion and are always being presented with new challenges for their scientists to address.   Most of Cortec’s products deal with solutions for storage or shipping and many of its products provide temporary protection.  But Cortec also develops longer term solutions.

A side note on Cortec products:  Since winter is approaching, it should be noted that Cortec will not ship some products if there is a risk of freezing during shipment.   It is very difficult to find shipping companies that will guarantee that a product won’t freeze.   The advise is that if you are using Cortec products that are on the freeze list,  you should order enough to carry you through the “freeze season”.   Click here for a list of the freeze products.

Share this post