Bridge Building between Laboratory Corrosion Data and Process Plant*

Abstract

In recent years there has been some concern that the knowledge of the corrosion specialist is not as widely applied in industry as it should be. The availability of technically competent advisers or of a central body able to answer questions and/or do research may make a contribution to the bridge building process between theory and practice, but there are far better proven methods available which should be used. The basicfact which needs to be recognised is that it is the ‘engineer’ whosejob it is to apply knowledgein practice. The word ‘engineer’ covers a multitude of people from designers to people on the shopfloor. These people have a special method of communicating with each other by means of specificationsand there are really good reasons why information which is not incorporated in this specialised languagemight as well not exist in the majority of cases. It is not particularly difficult to have corrosion informationtranslated into specifications but the appropriate laboratory data must first be establishedby the corrosion specialist. It is part of the task of the corrosion specialist to translate his knowledgeinto a form which can be used in engineering.