Cycles
in human activity dictate that what is popular or useful one day may not be
required the next. Changes in fashion, the economy, technology and now even our
climate, mean that predicting the future becomes more difficult every year.
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| Picture courtesy Chuckman Collection Vol. 17 |
Despite
the uncertainty, some basic truths persist: if it can go wrong, it probably will;
the simplest explanation is most likely to be true; hell is not a suitable
place for a snowball - you know the kind of thing. So, while we may not be able
to plan a picnic in England because we do not know when the rain will come, the
fact that rain will come remains a certainty.
Left: apparently this is also true for Chicago ...
What’s
my point?
It’s
about foresight. Our CEO often refers to the ‘K.I.S.S.’ principle - keep it
simple stupid - especially when he is talking to me! And there are some things about what we do as a
company that are nearly as straightforward as he would like them to be.
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| Typical fifties car shortly after collection from the dealer |
Corrosion
is a simple equation - steel plus oxygen and water equals rust - yet we persist
in building our most valuable infrastructure from this most vulnerable
material. In the past, cars would corrode very quickly and bodywork would fail
long before the engine or gearbox but, more recently, an increasingly robust
approach to corrosion control has all but eliminated these rustbuckets from our
roads. So it seems pretty straightforward, if you want to preserve your
infrastructure from corrosion, give it adequate protection.
If
only it were so simple
Many
factors play a part in producing the rust we see in every outdoor working
environment and, of course, not all rust prevention is cost-effective. Indeed,
in many areas, corrosion has been seen as inevitable and structures designed to
allow for metal loss through these natural processes with very little
intervention.
Fortunately,
safety issues and such an obvious waste of resources has motivated a more
pro-active approach to corrosion control in recent years but factors such as
cost and the long-term effectiveness of protection are as important today as
they ever were - and maintenance is in the ultimate catch 22 situation. When
operators are busy, there is no time for maintenance and when they have no
work, there is also no money.
One
of the prime motivators for the development of Enviropeel was the collapse of
demand for oil in the 1980s with many oil platforms being decommissioned and production
facilities mothballed. Our CEO, who was working in the oil industry at the time,
had a background in automotive rust protection and could see that much of the
stored equipment was not being adequately protected and started to work on the
idea that a sprayable protection system would be ideal if it could be made to
work.
In
the thirty years that have passed since that time, trillions of dollars have
been lost through corrosion. NACE estimates the cost to be approximately 4% of GDP,
which would have been over 3 trillion dollars in 2013 alone. Over 25% of
pipeline failures in the US are the result of corrosion and many deaths from
explosions, bridge collapses and other infrastructure failures attest to the human
cost of our failure to control corrosion.
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| Protecting a large component for storage |
Now,
I am not suggesting that the universal adoption of Enviropeel would immediately save the planet. It might
take somewhat longer - and require one or two other remedial processes before
that objective could be achieved. But a little bit of foresight and a few
Enviropeel applications can be amazingly effective in reducing losses from
component and infrastructure failure – and every little bit helps.
If
stored component failure can be reduced to zero in parts of the mining industry
and failure cycles in operating equipment reduced by 500%, what would this mean
for other industries with similar problems? If you’re in an industry where demand
and production cycles fluctuate, how much better off are you going to be if
your mothballed equipment still works when you need it? And that emergency standby
pump, generator, spare part? You have to be sure it stays fit for purpose.
It really is that simple. It will go wrong if you don’t do something about it and Enviropeel can help – without costing you the
earth!
