W. Stephen tait, ph.D.
Chief Science Officer & principal Consultant,
pair O Docs professionals, LLC
Preventing & controlling corrosion
with knowledge & experience
• Test length
• The percentage of each formula ingredient
The corresponding Meta data could include:
• A unique identifier for each formula
• A list of raw materials in each formula and the raw material
suppliers
• Specifications for the package components evaluated in the
orrosion test
A comprehensive corrosion database should also a) be accessible to
personnel responsible for spray product development; b) allow easy
entry of new corrosion data; c) contain both successful and unsuccessful
products and product derivatives; d) list raw materials suspected or
known to contribute to or cause spray package corrosion, and; e) list
successful and unsuccessful corrosion inhibitors. Maintenance of the
database should include:
• Routine training for new personnel (responsible for spray product
development) on how to use the database so that they can access it
or guidance on new product development and derivative product
development
• Routine communications to personnel (responsible for spray product
development) about changes or enhancements to the database
The routine use of a large, well maintained corrosion database minimizes
repeating mistakes and is a faster-to-market tool. The downside of
a corrosion database is that it takes decades to build to where there is
enough data to routinely use it for low-risk decisions.
However, database development time could be shortened by backfilling
it with corrosion results from all current and past spray products.
The data for backfilling could also include actual commercial experience
with current and past spray products and their derivatives.
I also recommend that all the corrosion data for a product line be
included when it is purchased from another company.
Pair O Docs has a state-of-the art electrochemical corrosion testing
laboratory; please contact me if you would like to know more about
our faster and predictive corrosion testing. You can also visit our new
website which has a short Vision Video that discusses all our corrosion
prevention and control services. Please also contact me if you would
like to a have our Elements of Spray Package Corrosion short course taught
at your R&D facility. Thank you for reading Corrosion Corner and I’ll
see you in September. Spray
Corrosion
Corner
Hello, everyone. Short development timetables make it tempting
to commercialize new products or derivative products
with no or minimum corrosion testing, sometimes using
experience that might or might not include corrosion
knowledge.
Experience is often confused with knowledge. Experience is the
information acquired from trial-and-error and exposure to different situations.
Experience is typically not documented in a database.
Knowledge is based on theoretical frameworks and data and is thus
by its nature documented. Corrosion knowledge is typically obtained
from:
• Formal engineering and science education
• Working with corrosion professionals
• Corrosion testing
• Continuing professional corrosion education (training)
• Professional conferences on corrosion
• Books and technical papers on corrosion
Knowledge without practical experience and experience without theoretical
frameworks and data are both incomplete and will not result in
useful, predictive, professional practice. In other words, experience and
knowledge are complementary and when integrated together, provide accurate
prediction of corrosion for new products and derivative products.
A comprehensive corrosion database contains the knowledge that is
integrated with experience. Integrated knowledge and experience are
used to assess the probability of corrosion for new products and derivative
products, thereby reducing risk. In other words, a comprehensive
corrosion database can also shorten the time needed for corrosion testing
without the increasing risk.
Two types of information are needed for a corrosion database: numbers
and meta data. Meta data is the descriptive information associated
with numbers that gives them meaning. For example, pit depths are
numbers and the associated meta data could include how the depths
were obtained, the chemical composition of the formula that caused
the pitting and the spray package component experiencing the pitting
corrosion.
Numbers generated with corrosion testing and stored in a comprehensive
database could include:
• Pit depths and blister sizes
• Corrosion parameters, such as corrosion resistance or estimated
container service lifetime
• Test parameters, such as temperatures and number of replicate
samples
20 Spray August 2017