CoatingsPro offers an in-depth look at coatings based on case studies, successful business operation, new products, industry news, and the safe and profitable use of coatings and equipment.
Issue link: http://coatingspromag.epubxp.com/i/72303
NOTES FROM THE FIELD Fight Corrosion With The DOD By Chris Grethlein he principal goal of the Department of Defense's (DOD's) Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight is to minimize the impact of corrosion on the nation's military assets to increase readiness, decrease costs, and improve the safety of all weapons platforms and infrastructure. But beyond this funda- mental charge, the Corrosion Office and its partners seek to bring these advances to the commercial sector. T Private companies share many of the same challenges as the DOD in protecting their products and capital equipment. But organizations could potentially improve their bottom lines by taking advantage of government laboratories' and product centers' experience with corrosion issues. The U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC) at the Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey is one such center. ARDEC has a long history of partnering with industry, universities, and non-military govern- ment agencies throughout the research, development, production, and fielding of advanced armaments for the soldier. "We're seeking new partners to expand our horizons," said Daniel P. Schmidt, senior materials engineer at ARDEC. For a number of years, ARDEC has been engaged in a series of cooperative projects with a variety of private companies and universities. Its range of laboratories, test facilities, and technology centers offers partners and customers access to the state- of-the-art possibilities in a broad spectrum of technologies. As part of this overall thrust, the ARDEC Corrosion Office and its extensive test facility have been working for and with government agencies and commercial enterprises. Corrosion Testing Facility Addresses Myriad Corrosion Issues ARDEC's Corrosion Testing Facility is a fully functional engineering laboratory, capable of conducting a wide variety of tests and analyses to assess and character- ize the many forms of corrosion. Material science, manufacturing processes, virtual reality and simulation, image processing, and non-destructive testing are just a few of the capabilities available to the private sector through ARDEC. The facility's An example of a project in which ARDEC is working with an industrial partner to develop a galvanic cor- rosion software module. Photo courtesy of ARDEC. specific capabilities include: t Corrosion Instrumented Test Yard (CITY)—The ARDEC Corrosion Office maintains an atmospheric exposure test site called the CITY for test coupons and some compo- nents. One of the more realistic forms of corrosion testing, CITY allows ARDEC and its partners to conduct long-term corrosion studies in accor- dance with ASTM G50, "Standard Practice for Conducting Atmospheric Corrosion Tests on Metals." The test yard has a continuous weather logging capability, so that cumula- tive exposure can be quantitatively assessed for individual tests. Last, the test yard offers a safe and secure test venue for partners, since it is located on a military installation and is acces- 34 CoatingsPro J July 2012 The military and industry are similarly impacted by the effects of corrosion, as manifested on this series of fastener coupons on ARDEC's environmental exposure rack. Photo courtesy of the Army's Armament Research, Development, and Engineering Center (ARDEC). sible only to authorized parties. t Elect rochemical Laboratory— Knowing that bench testing can be as important as exposure testing, the ARDEC Corrosion Office offers quantitative capabilities in electro- chemical testing, featuring a full range of equipment-potentiostats, galva- nostats, zero-resistance ammeters, software analyses, and test cells- capable of running numerous electrochemical tests in the laboratory as well as in the field. t Specialized Testing Equipment—The Corrosion Testing Facility can also perform tests in simulated environ- ments, measuring a number of physical ARDEC offers a wide variety of corrosion test appa- ratus, such as the Corrosion Instrumented Test Yard (CITY). Photo courtesy of ARDEC.