A
M a t e r i a l s
T e c h n o l o g y
I n s t i t u t e
P u b l i c a t i o n
COMMUNICATIONS
“Maximizing resources through a global network of materials specialists”
|
SUMMER 2014
Duplex
Stainless
Steel
Take an Up Close
Look at the New Atlas
of Microstructures
Page 3
Inside this Issue
2. RBI Training
in China
6. New
Member:
SES
10. EuroTAC
Highlights
7. New
Member:
ITRI
8. AsiaTAC
Highlights
h t t p://www.m t i-global.or g
11. N
ew EuroTAC
Chair
16. Refiners
Roundtable
About this Publication:
MTI Communications is published by the
Materials Technology Institute, Inc. (MTI).
MTI is a unique, cooperative research and
development organization representing
private industry. Its objective is to conduct
generic, non-proprietary studies of a
practical nature on the selection, design,
fabrication, testing, inspection, and
performance of materials and equipment
used in the process industries.
Copyright © 2014 Materials Technology
Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contact:
Submit all correspondence regarding
MTI Communications to:
Materials Technology Institute, Inc.
1215 Fern Ridge Parkway, Suite 206
St. Louis, MO 63141-4408
1-314-576-7712 (telephone)
1-314-576-6078 (fax)
mtiadmin@mti-global.org
MTI Communications
Editorial Board:
Michael Anderson, Syncrude
David Barber, The Dow Chemical Company
Eileen Chant, Becht Engineering
Debby Ehret, MTI
Gene Liening, The Dow Chemical Company
John Aller, MTI
Steve Springer, DuPont
Heather Stine, MTI
Michael Turner, AkzoNobel
Bill Watkins, MTI
Editor: Kirk Richardson, MTI
Subscriptions:
For a free subscription, write to MTI or
contact mtiadmin@mti-global.org
Calendar:
AmeriTAC 114
June 16-19, 2014
Denver, CO
AsiaTAC Fall Meeting
September 25-26, 2014
Shanghai, China
AmeriTAC 115
October 20-23, 2014
Columbus, OH
AmeriTAC 116
February 23-26, 2015
Miramar Beach, FL
EuroTAC Spring 2015
Dates: TBD
Düsseldorf, Germany
Please contact us at 314-576-7712 or
mtiadmin@mti-global.org for more
information or to find out how your
company can become a member.
Web Site:
http://www.mti-global.org
Cover: Graphic artist Steve O’Neal was
instrumental in designing MTI’s new
book, Duplex Stainless Steel Atlas
of Microstructures.
Dow Corning Applies MTI
RBI Training in China
M
any Processing Industry
companies depend on Risk
Based Inspection (RBI) to
manage the risks associated with
their process-containing equipment
and minimize costly upsets, shutdowns, and turnarounds. RBI is a
systematic approach to the management of inspection programs by
prioritizing equipment inspection
activities. The approach consists of
a detailed analysis of prior inspections, corrosion, materials of construction, process, plant operations,
and consequence to identify the
risk associated with the operation
of the equipment. The analysis provides the basis to make informed
decisions on inspection frequencies, level of detail, and methods of
nondestructive evaluations.
RBI methodology was written
into regulation in China in 2009,
and today, a comprehensive inspection program for pressure vessels
used in operating the country’s CPI
plants is required. To comply with
the new regulations, Dow Corning built a special team, consisting
of mechanical integrity engineers,
process engineers and process safety
SUMMER 2014
|2
engineers, aligning it with a local
certified inspection authority, and
initiated its own RBI project.
In October 2012, MTI conducted a two-day RBI training course in
Shanghai, China prior to its Annual AsiaTAC Meeting. Peiwu Sun,
Mechanical Integrity Team Leader
at Dow Corning (ZJG) Co., Ltd.
in Jiangsu, China, led the Project
Team that planned and organized
the seminar. John Aller, MTI’s new
Executive Director and an internationally recognized RBI expert,
taught the well-attended session.
“It was very helpful to learn the RBI
Program,” according to Sun.
Dow Corning has already put
the information to good use. The
company’s China-based ZJG plants
include nearly 500 pressure vessels.
The RBI program has enabled Dow
Corning to understand potential
failure modes as well as accurately
assess the likelihood of failure
(LOF) and consequence of failure
(COF) of the equipment using
modeling software purchased
from DNV.
> CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
New Atlas of Microstructures
Takes an Up Close Look at Duplex SS
M
TI will fill another void in
the materials engineering
world this summer when
it publishes the Duplex Stainless
Steel Atlas of Microstructures.
According to Co-Champion and
Metallurgist Hira Ahluwalia
(representing Nickel Institute),
the book was prepared to meet the
industry’s need for an atlas with
high quality, instructive images of
duplex stainless
steel microstructures.
This one-of-a-kind atlas fills a
gap in knowledge, according to
Ahulwalia. He adds that the 30
member companies who participated points to the need for this
kind of resource in industry. “We
wanted this atlas to be a teaching
tool and not just a bunch of photomicrographs,” notes Ahulwalia.
Making the leap from a coffee-table
picture book to a useful metallurgical guide and failure analysis tool
required considerable attention
to detail.
Co-Champion and fellow Metallurgist Jim Fritz (representing
Outokumpu) believes that the new
atlas could help industry members
avoid costly problems. “With the
duplex family of stainless steels, it
is important to maintain an appropriate austenite/ferrite
phase ratio
and avoid
undesirable
secondary
phases, such
as sigma
and chi,”
according
to Fritz. “Hence,
the microstructure is important in
determining the properties of a duplex stainless steel, particularly the
toughness and corrosion resistance.
“The value of the atlas is that it
shows the reader both good and
bad microstructures. The atlas also
shows the microstructures for all
the product forms, including plate,
sheet, pipe, tube, bar, forgings,
castings, and weldments. This is
important because the microstructures of different product forms
can look quite different. The atlas
will be a useful QA tool for screening duplex products, evaluating
weld procedures, and performing
failure analyses.”
“Duplex stainless steels in general are being used to a greater extent
than they had been before,” reports
Ahluwalia. “They are replacing 304
and 316 stainless steels for many
applications in the Chemical Industry. More people are dealing with
these alloys, but at the same time,
they aren’t
familiar with the
metallurgy of these
alloys. It’s important for them to
know what the microstructures look
like (good or bad),
SUMMER 2014
|3
so that they can make informed
decisions for their application.
Some of the intermetallic phases
in these alloys are very brittle.
Failures can be catastrophic!”
According to Fritz, findings
came out of the project that have
not been previously reported, including:
• The superiority of the
Pellegrino’s etchant for preparing samples for identification
of secondary phases
• The difference in resolution
of carbides and nitrides with
backscatter versus secondary
electron images and how this
can help in identifying phases
• The tendency of the oxalic acid
etchant to selectively leach the
secondary austenite phase
Making these and other discoveries was no easy task considering the
veritable obstacle course that the
leadership trio faced along the
> CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Dow Corning Applies MTI RBI Training in China
> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
Through September of 2013,
Dow Corning applied RBI modeling to 347 vessels, determining that
only 40 needed to be opened for
inspection, and avoiding more
than $1 million in associated
maintenance costs in the process.
“Inspection man-hours are a small
cost savings,” reports Sun. “The
bigger cost saving from the RBI program is that the vessels don’t need
to be cleaned (purged and washed
out) for internal inspection. That
means that more wastewater is
avoided to be dealt with at a high
cost.” Additionally, Dow Corning
was able to avoid costs associated
with the construction scaffolding,
insulation removal and replacement, and internal inspection for
more than 300 vessels.
“We also understand the impact
of thermal damage in the future,”
adds Sun. “Based on the RBI
model, we can limit the location
of inspections.”
This is an ongoing process for
Sun and his Mechanical Integrity
Team. “We focus on preventive
maintenance of existing, fixed
equipment (pressure piping, pressure vessels, rupture disks, relief
valves, etc.),” he explains. Every
year, inspectors monitor shell
thickness and conduct external
visual inspection of the vessels.
Sun adds that a small number of
vessels are opened and inspected
during scheduled shutdowns,
adding: “All the available data we
get will be input into RBI software
for periodic re-assessment.”
Risk Based Inspection helps
engineers understand potential
failure modes. “Various process
conditions involve different
potential failure mechanisms,”
explains Sun. “RBI provides
failure models to analyze
possible failure mechanisms
due to the process conditions.”
Dow Corning engineers continue to work with JSSIE (China
Jiangsu Province Special Equip-
ment Safety Supervision Inspection
Institute), a certified inspection
organization. JSSIE uploads the
equipment and process data into
the RBI software, analyzes the
information, identifies the damage
mechanisms, and together with
Dow Corning’s Mechanical Integrity Team, plans the RBI inspection
strategy.
Project Champion Sun is pleased
that the MTI RBI training course
proved beneficial and hopes to
hear other stories of its successful
application by Chinese member
companies. MTI regularly provides
its members with tailored training
sessions on a variety of technical
topics in North America, Europe,
and Asia.
RBI DEFINED
Risk-Based Inspection (RBI)
technology has revolutionized the
process industry and its approach
to managing the inspection of process plants. It is a unique technology that can provide improvements
in safety and production while
reducing costs.
A traditional definition describes risk as the product of the
likelihood and consequence of failure. For the purposes of Risk-Based
Inspection, the pertinent risks are
the inspectable risks. Inspectable
risks are those that are caused by
equipment deterioration that can
be identified by plant inspections.
The likelihood of failure is
driven by those factors causing the
structural component to deteriorate, offsetting the factors allowing
the component to withstand the
damage. The key drivers that affect
the likelihood of failure are the
material damage mechanisms, their
rate of progression, the tolerance
of the equipment to damage, and
the amount and type of inspection
activities that have been performed
in the past.
The consequence of failure is an
analysis of the outcome or effect of
SUMMER 2014
|4
the failure. The consequence of a
failure is a function of what fluid
might be released because of the
failure and what impact that fluid
would have in the uncontained
state. For example, a large release
of compressed gasses will have an
overpressure effect associated with
the energy release. A release of a
hydrocarbon might have one of several flammable effects, such as a liquid pool fire or vapor cloud explosion. A toxic release will result in a
health hazard in the affected area.
Other non-safety related events
might have the consequence measured by the maintenance costs,
lost production, product quality,
or reputational consequences.
The benefits of RBI are quantifiable. In an existing operating
company, the simplest way to create
value is to improve the utilization
of resources. In a plant implementing RBI, measurable value can be
created by minimizing the risk
of equipment failure or reducing
inspection and maintenance costs.
In general, the cost of inspection
and maintenance can be reduced
by extending turnaround intervals,
shortening turnaround duration,
lowering the number and frequency of internal inspections, the
quantity of thickness monitoring
locations, and the frequency of relief device maintenance. Improved
uptime can be a byproduct of
reducing maintenance and inspection events. This is particularly
valuable when working in a regulated environment requiring short
plant turnaround intervals that can
be extended by incorporating a risk
based inspection program.
Today, Processing Industry
companies apply these principles
in their worldwide operations and
realize benefits from improved
production resulting in a better
bottom line. MTI has been involved
with RBI technology for nearly 20
years, publishing Implementing
and Evergreening RBI in Process
New Atlas of Microstructures
> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
Plants (available at mti-global.org)
in 2005. In the nine years since
that book was written, the technology has continued to develop,
and adoption of RBI continues
to expand to world-class processing industry companies, like
Dow Corning.
ABOUT DOW CORNING
AND ITS ZJG SITE
Dow Corning (dowcorning.com)
provides performance-enhancing
solutions to serve the diverse needs
of more than 25,000 customers
worldwide. A global leader in silicones, silicon-based technology and
innovation, Dow Corning offers
more than 7,000 products and services via the company’s Dow Corning® and XIAMETER® brands.
Dow Corning is equally owned by
The Dow Chemical Company and
Corning, Incorporated. More than
half of Dow Corning’s annual sales
are outside the United States.
Dow Corning Zhangjiagang
(ZJG) site is one of the largest
integrated silicone manufacturing
sites in the world. It consists of
four production plants, including
a siloxane plant and a fumed silica
plant, both of which are jointly
managed by Dow Corning and its
joint venture partner, as well as
finished silicone production plants,
which are owned and operated
independently by each company in
full competition.
Dow Corning is fully committed
to sustainable production in China.
Like their other facilities across the
world, Dow Corning’s manufacturing sites in China actively implement the concept of sustainable
development. Its environmental,
health, safety and security (EHSS)
management system accords with
Responsible Care® initiative, a
stringent set of international standards designed to advance the safe
and secure management of chemical products and processes.
n
way. “From my perspective there
were two big hurdles,” recalls
Fritz. “The sheer number of
product forms, etchants, and heat
treat conditions made it difficult
to select the best images and
conditions to include in the final
draft without the atlas growing to
an unruly size. The second hurdle
was to identify and describe the
many microstructures using the
acquired images. Typically you
would identify phases in the
microstructure while the sample
is on the optical microscope or
in the scanning electron microscope.” Since that didn’t happen,
Fritz and Ahluwalia had to painstakingly re-examine and write
descriptions for each and every
image that appears in the book.
Ahluwalia enjoyed working
with a Co-Champion. “I think it
kind of helps by not putting all
of the burden on one person,”
he observes. “We did a nice job
of interacting with membership,
keeping them in the loop, and also
being able to interact with our
vendors. I like the Co-Champion
model, especially if you get people
from different industries and
backgrounds working together,
because it makes the project even
stronger. But I also believe the
more you give to MTI projects,
the more you get out of them.”
Stine shares credit for the
success story, starting with MTI
member companies. “This Duplex Atlas project beautifully
illustrates the strength of the MTI
organization and member collaborative efforts,” she concludes. “A
large project team consisting of
representatives from over 30 different member companies designed the scope and objectives of
the project, and then donated the
alloy samples, including performing a variety of different welds, to
bring it together. The project
Co-Champions then took on the
task of completing the project to
the highest standards, resulting
in a work that will be very valuable to the industry. This type of
project would never have been
produced if it were not for the
combined efforts of MTI
member companies.”
n
A Super Duplex stainless steel plate sample isothermally aged at 982°C (1800°F) for one
hour shows widespread precipitation of intermetallic compounds (brown colored precipitates) throughout the cross section of the plate. The thermal treatment is well within the
intermetallic temperature range for this 255/Uranus 52N+ dual certified super duplex
stainless steel. NaOH etchant, 750X.
SUMMER 2014
|5
SES Brings New Capabilities,
Connections, and Perspectives to MTI
I
mmediately after Derrick Rogers
presented The Development of
Industry Standards for Composite
Repair Systems at AmeriTAC 112
in Savannah, Georgia last October,
he was the one who was sold. Rogers, who is Business Development
Leader/Staff Consultant at Stress
Engineering Services (SES), was
impressed enough with the MTI
model that he was already planning
on coming to future meetings, but
as a member company representative. Of course, Rogers knew that
he would have support back in
Houston from new hire Brian
Fitzgerald, a fixture at TAC
meetings when he was a Materials
Engineer with ExxonMobil.
Rogers was right. SES recently
joined MTI and is already active in
helping plan a Refiners Roundtable
forum for October 2014 (see article on page 16). But SES hopes to
add much more value as it becomes
involved in projects, forum discussions, seminars, and meetings.
The company’s insights on aging
plant issues, such as reliability,
could prove valuable to member
companies who are focusing on
identifying potential problems
and possible solutions.
“SES is a specialty engineering
company that utilizes an extensive knowledge base from across a
wide range of industries to provide
innovative solutions that meet all
code and industry guidelines,” explains Rogers. “Our team of highly
skilled engineers and technicians
use a multi-disciplinary approach,
advanced engineering tools, and
technology to provide cost-effective
solutions that improve performance, reliability, quality,
and safety.
“SES is a unique organization
with a combined suite of capabilities, expertise, and resources. We
Stress Engineering Services’ facilities in Mason, Ohio (top). Full scale testing, materials
characterization , and other capabilities in SES’ Houston, Texas headquarters include a load
frame with 6.5-million-pound capacity used to test threaded and welded connections for
OCTG piping (bottom).
specialize in performing full scale
testing, material characterization,
and analysis for solving complex
problems where the consequence
of failure is catastrophic.”
The company’s broad range of
capabilities includes Life Assessments; Fitness for Service Evaluations; Failure Analysis; Acoustic
Emission Testing; Field Instrumentation/Monitoring; Fracture and
Defect Assessment; High Tem-
SUMMER 2014
|6
perature Pressure Part Assessment;
B31.1 Covered Piping System
Compliance; Vibration Analysis
and Remediation (FIV); Computational Fluid Dynamics; and Full
Scale Testing. “SES provides value
to our customers by having all of
those resources under one roof,”
points out Rogers. “This enables
a seamless integration between
testing and analysis, allowing us
to solve complex problems.”
There are plenty of organizations that include the participation
of oil & gas and CPI producer companies, but SES zeroed in on MTI’s
> CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
New Member ITRI Opening
Doors in Southeast Asia
E
verything in the world is moving at an accelerated pace and
that includes the period of
time it takes a new member to have
a positive impact on the organization. Since joining MTI in January
2014, the Industrial Technology
Research Institute (ITRI) has already been a focal point in planning
a major AsiaTAC FFS Training session as well as the Spring AsiaTAC
Meeting in Taiwan (see article on
page 8). MTI Associate Director
Jesse Chen took advantage of a
great opportunity, asking ITRI’s
new TAC Representative T. P.
Cheng to join the AsiaTAC Steering Committee. Cheng was instrumental in landing Co-Sponsors
CPC Corporation and Formosa
Plastics and helping organize the
successful meeting.
Although ITRI conducts its own
research, it was attracted to MTI’s
breadth of knowledge and unique
projects. “Serving the industry is
one of the main missions of ITRI
and can be performed well only
with the assistance of capable and
experienced researchers and engineers,” notes Cheng. “So the continued training, learning, and self-improving are an important and vital
task. MTI as an organization has a
huge knowledge-base, database and
forum, established during the past
30 or more years and still growing,
that meets the needs of ITRI.”
One topic of great interest to
ITRI is corrosion under insulation
(CUI). The reason is quite simple
and straightforward, according to
Cheng: “Taiwan’s geographic location is in the subtropical region
of the Pacific Rim in which the
marine atmosphere causes a considerable corrosion loss to CUI every
year,” he explains. “Therefore, CUI
inspection and its mitigation were
proposed as the highly interesting
New MTI Member ITRI Co-hosted the AsiaTAC Taiwan Meeting in May. TAC Representative
TP Cheng of ITRI (shown here) was a member of the Spring AsiaTAC Planning Committee.
topic by local CPI engineers. One
warning and preventive system was
presented and discussed during
the AsiaTAC meeting and might
be considered in the near future
as a potential project worthy of an
in-depth study and field trial.”
ITRI brings its own experience
and resources that will be beneficial to MTI and may help expand
its network in Asia. “Networking
with Taiwan’s and the Asia Pacific’s
industries is one of the valuable assets,” he continues. “ITRI can help
MTI promote and maximize the asset performance of CPI companies
in this region.”
Cheng foresees a future where
MTI can be an even more valuable
technical resource in the region.
“As more and more joint-venture
businesses are being expanded in
the Asia Pacific region, including
Southeastern Asian countries,
MTI’s already built database and
ability will be very useful to help
new startup companies to solve
material application and corrosion
problems and to train the inexperienced engineers,” he predicts.
SUMMER 2014
|7
Until then, Cheng will continue to
participate in AsiaTAC meetings
and look for possible collaborative
projects that could benefit ITRI
and potential member companies
in the region. MTI welcomes ITRI
to its worldwide materials engineering community.
ABOUT ITRI
ITRI is one of the world’s leading
technology R&D institutions
aiming to innovate a better future
for society. Since its inception,
ITRI has been dedicated to helping industries stay competitive and
sustainable with the mission of
expediting the development of industrial innovation, facilitating the
process of industrial upgrades,
and creating value-added applications for industrial technologies.
Through multi-disciplinary integration of resources and talents,
ITRI keeps building its R&D capacity and strengthening industrial
services. It is also keen on developing smart technology and green
solutions that can improve quality
of life and protect the environment. Headquartered in Taiwan,
ITRI has five branch offices in
Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Berlin,
Moscow, and Eindhoven to
extend its reach across the globe.
n
FFS Training Session Highlights
AsiaTAC Taiwan Meeting
T
he AsiaTAC Steering Committee started looking at
Taiwan as a future meeting
site more than a year ago. Since
that idea surfaced, a lot of planning
went into the effort. The Committee’s considerable effort paid off
in a successful Fitness for Service
(FFS) Training session and MTI’s
second successful Spring AsiaTAC
Meeting, held May 15-16 in Chia
Yi City, Taiwan.
AsiaTAC Chair Henry Ye,
DuPont, called it an excellent
conference. “MTI AsiaTAC just
made a new landmark type of
achievement,” emphasizes Ye.
“Almost all major Taiwan
petrochemical and chemical
companies were included.”
According to Jesse Chen, MTI
Associate Director, more than 60
people attended the FFS Training
seminar and AsiaTAC proceedings.
Themes that concentrated on CPI
Corrosion Issues (first day) and Corrosion Under Insulation (second
day) generated plenty of interest
and conversation. “Not surprisingly,
many plants in this region share the
same need of getting this issue under better control by understanding it better,” Chen says of CUI.
“Many organizations have started to
work independently of each other
SUMMER 2014
|8
or are attempting to cooperate. MTI
is the organization that can help
them in leveraging the team and
resource-sharing approach, leading
to better solutions to this problem. We received a lot of positive
feedback from the people that we
talked to in this meeting.”
Like Ye, Chen was very pleased
with the mix of MTI member companies and prospective members
attending AsiaTAC. “With a wellorganized technical program under
the leadership of Dr. T.P Cheng of
ITRI, we were able to attract many
long time MTI member companies
that operate in Taiwan and in the
region, such as DuPont, Dow, Air
Products, BP, Outokumpu, Rath
Gibson, Asahi-Kasei and Mitsui
Chemicals,” reports Chen. “MTI’s
newest member, ITRI, and several
non-member major Taiwan companies, such as CPC Corporation,
Formosa Plastics and China Steel,
were also very well represented
along with many smaller
Taiwanese companies.”
That broad range of experience
and perspectives added value to
the interactive exchanges. “Prominent Professors Wen-Ta Tsai from
National Cheng Kung University,
Taiwan, and Masatoshi Kubouchi
from Tokyo Technology Institute,
Japan, also presented papers,”
continues Chen. “Finally, we also
had participation from Taiwan
government bodies in both the FFS
Training and the AsiaTAC Meeting,
which will improve the mutual understanding between the governing
bodies and the operating companies
in Taiwan. We had a wide spectrum
of organizations that all got together for the first time discussing key
common material and processing
issues facing the industry.”
Ye applauded CPC Corporation
for its hospitality and enjoyed the
opportunity to explore its fascinating facilities . “It was like a history
tour,” he remarks. “Because CPC is
one of the largest companies in Taiwan, it goes up and down as Taiwan
goes. During World War II, nearly
all facilities were bombed down.
But it has still been able to develop
itself back into a large and successful company, which was amazing.”
Chen points out that the tour
and technical program were the
result of resource sharing and
teamwork stretching beyond
member companies. “MTI is
fortunate to have many valuable
partners namely, ITRI, The Corrosion Association of the Republic
of China, and Co-Sponsors CPC
Corporation and Formosa Plastics,”
he concludes. “Without our local
partners, this meeting would not
have been possible.”
AsiaTAC ANNUAL MEETING ON
THE CALENDAR
After holding a successful meeting
in Taiwan, the AsiaTAC Steering
Committee is already busy planning the AsiaTAC Annual Fall
Meeting. That interactive forum
will take place in Shanghai, China,
September 25-26, 2014. MTI plans
to offer a special one-day training
seminar on Reliability Technology in conjunction with the Fall
AsiaTAC meeting. “Another day
may be devoted to a training session
on polymeric materials,” reports
Associate Director Jesse Chen, a
member of the Organizing Committee. “Our first steering team
planning meeting for this event
will be held early June, so more
details will follow.”
Chen encourages members
who want to be involved and
present technical information
at AsiaTAC to contact him at
jchen@mti-global.org. Further
details, including the name of the
host hotel and reservation links,
will be posted on the MTI web site
as they become available.
n
(Top Left) Participants at AsiaTAC
Taiwan 2014, (Top Right) FFS
Training Session Presenter John
Young, DuPont, (Bottom Left)
Professor Wen-Ta Tsai of National
Cheng Kung University of Taiwan
(Bottom Right) Jesse Chen, MTI,
with Keynote Speaker Professor
Tsai, National Cheng Kung
University of Taiwan
SUMMER 2014
|9
EuroTAC 2014 participants gather at TNO’s research facilities in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
EuroTAC 2014 Yields New Ideas,
Plans, and Leadership
A
lot can be accomplished
in a very short time when
you bring the right people
together. Such was the case at the
Spring 2014 EuroTAC Meeting,
held March 25-26 at TNO’s
headquarters in Eindhoven, The
Netherlands. An insightful tour
of the science-focused facility
was followed by a variety of
technical presentations and
valuable discussions.
“TNO gave the EuroTAC
membership two tours of facilities
showing state of the art materials engineering research projects,”
reports MTI Associate Director Heather Stine. “They have a
tribology lab and creep rupture
apparatus that may be helpful
resources for future MTI projects
and demonstrated new technological research, such as fiber optic
sensors that may have future MTI
applications as well. Being aware
of the depth and breadth of their
capabilities will be valuable for
MTI member companies as well
as for being considered as a
potential contractor for future
MTI projects.” Minds filled with new ideas and
possibilities, Stine, fellow MTI
Associate Director Emory Ford,
and Executive Director John Aller
joined members and guests for
a variety of technical presentations. Thirty four people attended
the spring meeting, representing
16 member companies, and one
prospective member, Sonomatic.
EuroTAC featured presentations on
FRP Global Standards, Inspection
Techniques, Guided Wave for Tank
Bottoms, Accelerated Testing to Determine Remaining Lifetime, Heat
Resistant Cast Alloys, MTI Flange
Project and Polymer Permeability
Book Updates, and A Technique
for the Evaluation of Toughness of
Carbon Steel.
“The talks were informative
and the questions and answers and
discussions after each one were
engaged and showed great interest,” reports Stine. “Natalie Gelder
also hosted a Special Case Studies
session, where members brought
SUMMER 2014
| 10
current engineering problems to
the group and received helpful,
pertinent feedback and input on
the problems they presented. The
level of participation and support
was encouraging.”
Future support and participation could flow into an international project. “The EuroTAC membership supports participating in a
project on CUI (Corrosion Under
Insulation) that has been proposed
by a Japanese member company,”
according to Stine. “It has not yet
been formulated into a formal project, but EuroTAC, AmeriTAC and
AsiaTAC will all likely collaborate
in providing data to develop strategies in best solving this universal
problem that all chemical processing plants experience.”
In the annual business meeting,
the group elected a new EuroTAC
Chair, Dietlinde Jakobi of Schmidt
+ Clemens (see article on page 11).
Natalie Gelder of BASF will remain
as the Vice Chair. “Jakobi has been
an active participant and presenter
> CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
Schmidt + Clemens’ Jakobi
Steps Up to Chair EuroTAC
D
r. Dietlinde Jakobi, who
has been a very active participant at MTI’s technical
meetings in Europe, was named
EuroTAC Chair at the group’s most
recent meeting in Eindhoven, The
Netherlands. Member company
representatives were unanimous
in selecting Jakobi, who has been
a regular presenter at previous
meetings.
It’s easy to see why Jakobi’s MTI
peers selected her to lead the EuroTAC. “In my role as R&D Director
for the Schmidt + Clemens Group,
my responsibilities cover five manufacturing sites worldwide and the
coordination of a team of 20 highly
qualified researchers and technicians, currently working on 30
different R&D projects,” reports
Jakobi. “These are carried out
in close cooperation with partners, customers from different
industries like the petrochemical
industry, chemical plants, on- and
off-shore industry, and power
technology. This large number of
research projects necessitates an excellent research network, including
experts from different institutes,
organizations and associations.”
That is where a strong connection
to MTI is helpful.
“The MTI community offers an
excellent opportunity to network,
to share the experiences and knowledge with professionals and to meet
members during MTI meetings,”
she notes. “I have always been very
impressed and inspired by the work
of MTI.”
Jakobi is already thinking ahead,
considering potential projects and
seeking members’ input. “As the
new EuroTAC Chair, I will make
every effort necessary to
sustain the earlier success
of EuroTAC, under the
lead of Michael Turner
Dietlinde Jakobi, MTI EuroTAC Chair
(AkzoNobel), and to additionally
expand the research activities in
Europe by evaluating the specific
requests of the European market,”
she says. “I am convinced that we
can successfully increase MTI
European member engagement,
and I very much hope that we will
also increase the number of MTI
members in Europe.”
Members will have a big opportunity to engage when MTI
introduces its first Aging Plants
Conference & Expo with industry
partner KCI in March 2015
(refer to ad on page 13). In fact
Jakobi and EuroTAC participants
helped establish the initial agenda
at TNO in Eindhoven. She believes
that the event will
SUMMER 2014
| 11
be an extremely valuable meeting for MTI’s European members.
“Many chemical, petrochemical
plants and refineries currently operating in Europe face the problem
that they have reached or surpassed
their life expectancies and still
need to remain very productive,”
observes Jakobi. “Plant managers
must guarantee that the plants can
be kept profitable and safe as well
as economically sustainable, even
though present day regulations and
norms are quite different from the
standards in place when the plants
were originally built.” She is ready
to contribute to the discussion
when the conference launches
next spring.
In the meantime, Jakobi is
already working with Vice Chair
Natalie Gelder and Associate Director Heather Stine to strengthen
MTI’s technical community in
Europe. The leadership team has a
variety of plans, including potential
new projects and a second meeting in Europe. “This opportunity
should be used to improve the MTI
member network and to introduce
new members to MTI EuroTAC,”
she says of a possible Fall session.
There are no shortages of opportunities for those willing to lead, and
Jakobi will undoubtedly make the
most of them.
n
EuroTAC 2014 Yields New Ideas, Plans, and Leadership
> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
at EuroTAC for several years,”
points out Ford. “We have a nice
leadership team in place.”
Jakobi’s background makes her
a great choice for her new role
at MTI. She is R&D Director for
member company Schmidt +
Clemens Group, where her
responsibilities encompass five
manufacturing sites worldwide
and coordination of a team of 20
researchers and technicians working on 30 R&D projects. Moving
forward, the new EuroTAC Chair
says that she hopes to expand MTI’s
research activities and projects in
Europe by evaluating the specific
requests of the European market.
Following the election, Jakobi,
Gelder, and member company
representatives discussed plans for
future EuroTAC Meetings, including the potential for a Fall session.
“This will increase momentum and
strengthen networking opportunities among the membership and is
an important step in increasing the
value of MTI for European members,” notes Stine.
That isn’t all that MTI has
planned for EuroTAC. Fast-forward
a year, when the next Spring Meeting will include a special twist.
Aller and John Butterfield of KCI
(producers of Stainless Steel World)
announced the Aging Plants
Conference, a brand new industry
event co-hosted by the two Processing Industry-focused organizations,
slated for March 2015 in Düsseldorf, Germany (see ad on page 13).
The presenters encouraged member companies and guests to help
plan and participate in this event
that will address one of the hottest
topics in the CPI and associated
industries.
“We see regulations spreading
throughout the world that are putting much stronger requirements
on operating companies to properly
manage their aging infrastructure,”
according to Aller. “More and more
facilities are running beyond their
original design intent. There is a big
gap in our knowledge base to provide assurance that those plants can
continue to run safely once they’re
beyond their original design life
criteria.” Aller adds that a recent
survey of MTI member producer
company stakeholders demonstrated that they are constantly looking
for valuable/useful information
on plant integrity and reliability
issues, which is exactly what
Managing Aging Plants is focused
on delivering.
Watch for conference and
project updates, EuroTAC Meeting
information, and other important
news at mti-global.org.
n
SES Brings New Capabilities, Connections, and Perspectives to MTI
> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
collaborative, project-oriented
model. “What attracted SES to
MTI is the ability to meet with
all of the petrochemical industry
plant owner /operators in one
forum to hear their issues,” continues Rogers. “We currently do
business with a large number of
chemical plant owner /operators,
and we have an appreciation for
the problems we are exposed to
by those customers. In an effort to
better assist our customers we like
to be on the forefront of identifying problems and developing
solutions. By participating in the
development of those solutions,
SES will have a better vision for our
future investment strategies and
the ability to acquire resources to
better serve the industry and our
customers. We embrace the collaborative model as it enables the best
and brightest to have input when
solving problems.”
Rogers notes that he and his
colleagues are interested in many
MTI projects and hot topics,
including Prediction of Material
Degradation; Polymers; Integrity
and Condition Assessment; and
Metals. But it will take time to
identify all of the opportunities
of interest.
“When we look into the
future, we hope to gain a deeper
understanding of the problems
the petrochemical industry is
facing, and be a part of developing solutions that can be leveraged throughout the industry,”
he says. “During the course of
participating in the PDCs and
projects, we look forward to
meeting individuals, learning
more about the companies they
represent, and determining how
SES’ expertise and resources
can assist.
“As a first step, we would like
SUMMER 2014
| 12
to participate in more PDCs and
gain a better understanding of
MTI’s current events. We would
like to be integral in building
bridges with the other industry organizations. SES will be
celebrating its 42nd anniversary
this year, and we would like to
leverage the relationships and
expertise we have developed.”
The “bridge building” is
already underway. “SES is
currently serving customers
in the energy (oil & gas, power
generation, and petrochemical),
consumer products, and medical industries,” explains Rogers.
“SES would like to take a more
active role in helping in the cross
pollination of technology and
information and speeding up
the process of innovation.”
In MTI, SES found the right
environment to help make
that happen.
n
Preserving Industry in Europe with
Safe & Sustainable Operations for the Future
The Materials Technology Institute (MTI) in cooperation with KCI Publishing is organizing a twoday Conference & Expo devoted to the topic of “Managing Aging Plants”, 3–4 March, 2015, at the
Messe Düsseldorf Congress Center in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Conference Program at a Glance
The conference will cover the following topics and more:
• Acceptable risk/risk-based inspection
• Lack of effective management systems
• Aging phenomena that occur late in life
• Loss of experience/competence in the industry
• Deteriorating equipment
• Materials/fabrication quality
• European multi-nationals’ best practices • Planning for the future and Industry 4.0
• European regulations
• Positive materials identification (PMI)
• Inadequate/outdated design
• Tracking the incidence of failure
• Insuring aging plants
If you are interested in presenting a paper, contact John Butterfield, KCI,
at j.butterfield@kci-world.com or tel.: +31 575 585 294 for more information.
http://www.mti-global.org
Future Looks Bright for 2014
MTI Scholarship Winners
M
TI recently awarded its
2014 Bert Krisher Memorial Scholarships to
Zackary Lerch and David Waligorski, both seniors studying Materials
Engineering at the University of
Akron. Paul Manning (Haynes
International) and John Aller
(MTI) presented the awards at
the NACE Annual Conference
in San Antonio, Texas in March.
NACE received 16 applications
for MTI’s two $5000 awards. Selecting the winners from that talent
pool of tomorrow’s CPI professionals wasn’t an easy task. Committee
Members Dale Heffner (Electro
Chemical Engineering and Manufacturing), Robert Sinko (Eastman
Chemical), Manning, Kirk Richardson (MTI) and Committee Chair
Srini Kesavan (FMC) reviewed
many worthy candidates, several
of whom displayed both outstanding classroom performance as well
as relevant materials engineering
background and co-op work.
Overall, Kesavan noted that he
was very pleased with the universities’ participation this year, with
applications submitted from as far
as Australia and with an impressive level of participation from the
University of Akron. The scholarship is creating value for MTI
member companies by connecting
them with the next generation of
engineering talent and their new
ideas. “The Scholarship Program is
achieving the objectives of promoting awareness of MTI among students and CPI Materials Engineering as a career choice,” he observes.
It has certainly made an impact on
this year’s winners.
Lerch and Waligorski won the
two awards based on their academic excellence and pertinent work
with materials. It helped that both
of them are passionate about
2014 MTI Scholarship Winners (David Waligorski, center-left, and Zackary Lerch,
center, right) receive their awards at NACE’s Annual Conference in March.
their studies and chosen career
paths. “What’s not to be fascinated
about within the realm of materials
science?” asks Waligorski. “Everything we deal with in this world
is made of materials, and these
materials all have various properties that allow them to perform
certain tasks.
“As an engineer, I have the opportunity to orchestrate a beautiful system of these materials to
solve problems – problems such as
transportation (airplanes and automobiles), technology (computers
and circuits), energy (oil refineries
and power plants), and structures
(buildings and bridges). As society
progresses, our material demands
will only increase. We will need materials that are cheaper, last longer,
and can perform in more extreme
environments. Because of this, I
expect that the job market will be
quite good in the future, which
gives me comfort in choosing it as
a career. Perhaps more importantly,
SUMMER 2014
| 14
there will be many challenges and
problems to solve in this arena
going forward, which makes it an
interesting and important topic
to work on.” He is taking all of the
necessary steps to prepare for the
eventual opportunity.
“The degree I am working
towards, a Bachelor’s Degree in
Corrosion Engineering, is a mixture of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science, which is a very
unique combination,” says Waligorski. “The main goal of the program
is to develop knowledge about how
to prevent a system from degrading, and thus last longer. From a
materials standpoint, this can include things such as materials and
coating selection. From a chemical
engineering standpoint, this may
involve selecting corrosion inhibitors to inject into the system, or
process redesign to better suit available materials. An understanding
of both materials and the chemical
processes that these materials are
AmeriTAC
113 Recap
expected to contain is paramount
in properly developing a solution.
This is what makes the University
of Akron’s program unique. And
since many of the large chemical
processing facilities, such as refineries, are very old, there is no shortage
of these problems to solve. Much
research is being done on these
topics, and unfortunately failures
of pipelines and other systems are
becoming more common. For these
reasons, finding and developing
solutions to these problems is an
important and challenging task,
but also an interesting and
worthwhile one, and that is
why I am studying it.”
Waligorski recalls that his first
project involved testing coatings for
the Air Force, research that he presented at NACE in 2012. He has
also participated in cathodic protection, materials characterization,
and coatings degradation modeling
projects as well as corrosion inhibitor testing, research, modeling, and
development. “The corrosion inhibitor research has been the most
extensive, and we actually filed for
a patent based on my findings a few
weeks ago,” he reports.
Lerch has been dreaming about
a future in science since boyhood.
“Ever since I have been little, I have
been fascinated by technology,
especially military aircraft and cutting-edge advancements,” he recalls.
“Material engineering interests me
because without materials engineering, the advancement of technology such as aerospace, chemical
production, oil and gas exploration,
and infrastructure would not have
been possible.”
Waligorski notes that he would
love to move expeditiously up the
ranks at a corporation and be revered for his accomplishments, but
doesn’t expect that to happen with-
in the next five years. “I still have
one year left before I graduate with
my Bachelor’s degree,” he explains.
“I’m still uncertain as to whether
I will pursue graduate school after
obtaining my Bachelor’s or if I will
go straight to work. But I do intend
to continue working in the Chemical Process Industry, whether it is
related to research or actual industry experience. This is because the
Corrosion Engineering degree I
am working toward is a combination of Chemical Engineering and
Materials Science, which makes the
CPI an excellent fit for my skill set.
Beyond that, both of these areas
interest me greatly, which is why
I decided to pursue this degree
in the first place.”
As for his plans, Lerch has his
mind set on becoming a corrosion
engineer working on corrosion
mitigation and failure analysis
within the oil and gas industry.
He is a step closer to making that
dream a reality. “Fortunately,
my hard work and dedication to
become a corrosion engineer has
resulted in being a recipient of the
MTI Bert Krisher Memorial, which
will allow me to focus more on my
educational goals rather than the
financial burden upon graduation,”
explains the ultra-busy student. “I
am truly grateful, and words will
never convey how thankful I am to
be a recipient of this scholarship.”
“Without scholarships such as
these, I wouldn’t be able to focus on
school and research as I have, and
that is why I am very appreciative
of such support,” adds Waligorski.
“My thanks go out to everyone that
made this possible.”
The future certainly looks bright
for Lerch, Waligorski, and the
Chemical Processing Industry, and
MTI continues to lead the way.
n
SUMMER 2014
| 15
M
TI’s winter meetings are
usually among its busiest,
and AmeriTAC 113 was
no exception. In all 88 people representing 39 companies attended
the Project Team, PDC, and AmeriTAC sessions February 24-27 in
Fort Worth, Texas. New member
Stress Engineering Services (featured on page 6) attended as well as
pending members Huntsman and
ITRI (both have since joined MTI).
Presentation highlights included a
comparison between four different
international design codes for
FRP vessels by Adriano Urena of
OLLEARIS and a Final Report on
the Investigation of Technologies
Common to Other Industries by
Steve Springer of DuPont.
For further details about the
meeting, including a full list of
presentations, projects approved,
and other valuable information,
visit mti-global.org.
NEW DRs AND TAC REPS
MTI welcomes the following new
DRs and TAC Representatives.
• Jan van de Wetering
(AkzoNobel) – EuroTAC • Sunila “Nina” Young
(Huntsman) – Designated
Representative, AmeriTAC
• TP Cheng (ITRI) – Designated
Representative, AmeriTAC,
AsiaTAC, EuroTAC
• Justin Muscarella (TITAN
Metal Fabricators) – Designated
Representative
Bridget Egan and Chis LaBelle of Oregon
State University presented on web-based
eLearning opportunities at AmeriTAC 113
PRSRT. STD.
U.S. POSTAGE
• • • PAID • • •
PERMIT NO. 751
SALEM, OREGON
1215 Fern Ridge Parkway, Suite 206
St. Louis, MO 63141-4408
http://www.mti-global.org
M a t e r i a l s
T e c h n o l o g y
I n s t i t u t e
Refiners Roundtable Slated for October
C
orrosion and other material
challenges aren’t particular
about what kind of processing plant they vex. On October 20,
MTI will bring together some of
the best minds in the industry to
discuss materials issues during a
Refiners Roundtable. The one-day
session will be held in conjunction
with MTI’s Fall Project Team Meetings and AmeriTAC 115, October
20-22 in Columbus, Ohio. All
MTI member companies, whether
or not they operate refineries, are
invited to participate. In addition,
other major refiners will be invited
to participate as guests.
John Aller, MTI Executive
Director, explains that the Refiners Roundtable is a way for MTI to
identify the materials-related issues
in the refining sector and formulate a way to deliver value to its
current and potential members in
this sector. The meeting itself will
provide members and guests with
rapid access to critical technical
information. It will include technical presentations and a roundtable
forum as well as discussions on
longer term refinery-related potential projects. “MTI is unlike other
industry organizations because we
have funds waiting for good projects to get formulated, rather than
good ideas looking for funding,”
according to Aller. “The participating companies have immediate
access to the knowledge that is being developed by the project team.”
Kevin Ganschow, a Materials
Engineer at Chevron Energy
Technology Company, adds that
MTI is very agile and able to move
quickly on the kinds of projects
that he and colleagues at refineries
would be interested in participating in, including corrosion under
insulation. Ganschow is looking
forward to the roundtable session
and discussion of MTI’s refineryrelevant past, current, and potential projects.
There will be plenty of chances
to identify research opportunities,
starting with a tour of the nearby
Edison Welding Institute. EWI
develops and applies manufacturing technology innovation within
the manufacturing industry. The
institute is noted for helping manufacturers optimize the fabrication,
operation, maintenance, and repair
of complex refinery equipment.
Following the tour, MTI will
host a lunch presentation and
roundtable session. Technical
presentations will include:
• MTI Projects of Special Interest
to Refining
• Inherently Safer Design
• Stress Corrosion Cracking
Concerns in Refining
• Fire Damage Assessment
• Other Special Presentations and
Topics of Interest to Refiners
SUMMER 2014
| 16
In addition, each refinery or
producer company in attendance
will receive a free copy of MTI’s
book, “Damage Assessment:
Investigating Fires, Explosion and
Storm Damage in Chemical Plants”
(an $850 value).
The event will conclude with
a reception on Monday evening,
but refiners are invited to stay and
attend MTI Project Team Meetings
and AmeriTAC 115. This event is
free of charge, but space is limited
to member companies and select
guests. Contact Kirk Richardson
(krichardson@mti-global.org),
Emory Ford (eford@mti-global.
org), or the MTI Office at
314-576-7712 for more
information and to
request an invitation.