What is Corrosion?

Corrosion is the degradation of any material, (ie any naturally occurring or man-made materials), through its contact with the environment. This occurs naturally as the material will always return to its lowest energy state.

So, in terms of a piece of steel, which is man-made and has been processed, it now would like to return to its natural state (iron oxide). After being processed, it is now in an unstable form, and thus with the right combination of environment, it will return to its natural state of iron ore. Three main conditions/ requirements which have to be met before corrosion can occur; these being,

(i) the metal must be in contact with an electrolyte
(ii) dissolved substances/ ions, ie oxygen, or hydrogen ions and
(iii) presence of a corrosion cell, ie a portion of the metal is an anode (oxidation) and the other part is a cathode (reduction).

Corroded Pipe

What is Cathodic Protection?

Cathodic protection is defined as a reduction of corrosion on the metal surface, which involves making this metal surface the cathode of a corrosion cell. This can be achieved by sacrificing a more active metal or by impressing direct current.

Sacrificial anodes eg. magnesium, zinc, aluminium utilizes the galvanic potential to drive the anode in order to protect the structure from corrosion. Else in the case of an Impressed Current Cathodic Protection (ICCP) system, an external power source is used to impressed current on relatively noble metal i.e. platinised titanium, graphite.

Life of a Corrosion Engineer

Wow!! What is that?? You mean you handle rusty stuff? So you can make my gate not have that rusty look? Or…Hmmm.. Sounds interesting but what do you do actually?

These are some of the expected response you will receive having a job title as a Corrosion Engineer, but I must say , the job is fulfilling.

We corrosion engineers are a rare breed of people who live to combat a naturally occurring process called corrosion ( or basically material degradation ). In our case, we deal mainly with steel / metallic structures where these ugly looking brown flakes you get is called "rust". As such, we value our priced possessions, which range from offshore structure, e.g. oil rigs, marine vessels, submarine pipelines, to buried onshore structures such as cross country oil & gas pipelines, water distribution pipes, to your hazardous petrochemical and power plants. These are a few to name.

Appropriate material selection, good surface preparation, corrosion management system…. These are all the essence of a sound engineering foundation for the mitigation of corrosion.

The perks are that besides the interesting field we venture and combat all sorts of different corrosion problems, we travel far and wide , been to places never heard off in everyday conversations on the account of solving corrosion problems. Each problem has its own individual signature attached alongside, e.g., the exact same problem will be in a different manner. This makes the Corrosion Engineer's work scope really challenging.

So, if you think that you will want to build your career on corrosion or you can contribute to any portion of this type of work ( and yes, this includes all you support personnel ), do forward us your Curricular Vitae at admin@mach3engineering.com for our further action.