New kid on the blog

Seems like a good idea to start a blog - after all, the A&E Group has a lot of colleagues, friends and customers who might like a reference point for info and news about what we are up to. Arthur, the Group CEO, is all for it (which is a worry, because he's pretty judgemental and not afraid to express his opinion) and we all know how 'important' social media has become as a means of communication ... we'll see how it goes.

As an organisation, we have always been early adopters of technology - we had a website before most people had any idea what that meant and our products benefit from all the latest tech - but we have been slow to move into blogging and facebook etc because of the commitment involved in maintaining a constant flow of ideas and news.

Of course, since it is going to be my responsibility to ensure that it works, it might be possible to attribute some of this tardiness to fear of the unknown - just how much work is going to be involved, who is going to read it, why me? You know what I mean ...

Nevertheless, because there IS a lot to say - about us, our friends and our competition - we have started, and plan to make sure it's worthwhile for you to make regular visits.

So ... what's new?

Quite a bit, since this is the first time we have spoken, but something that has given rise to more than a little satisfaction within our Technical Department has been the completion of the first stage of our recent long-term hot-salt fog testing for Enviropeel. Not that anyone here was surprised, but there are quite a few cynics amongst corrosion engineers and infrastructure operators, so it's great to be able to show in a standard test that what we experience in the field is demonstrably true - Enviropeel works brilliantly well. Follow this link to see the test result in full: 4,500 hour ASTM B117 test.

Just to help with the maths, 4500 hours is 6 months. A lot of bolts sold to the offshore industry are sold with a 1000-hour test as a mark of their durability and we see them fail in as little as six weeks. So we are not resting on our laurels, more samples remain in the test cabinet and we intend to keep them there for at least a year.

You might think that more than a decade of protection from Enviropeel tells its own story, but you would be wrong. Perhaps we can attribute some of this cynicism to the tenuous links with reality that lie behind many competitors' product claims. I have certainly learned that seeing is believing - and I hear it over and over again from potential customers who have no experience with our products. So, if a test is what you need, here is one for you to read but I suggest you speak to our customers - they know the truth when they experience it.

This is just a first post and relatively short but, now the ball is rolling, we will be back. Not just blowing our own trumpet - we hope to cover many of the issues that concern this corroding planet and, for our colleagues, there will be updates to testing and product information as well as the odd story or two that have absolutely nothing to do with rust.

Thanks for listening ...

Tim Davison