Wolseley Industrial acquires Duhig Stainless, Inc.€¦ · Stainless Steel World Americas is the leading publication for corrosion resistant alloy users, suppliers, and fabricators

SSWAM - February 2018 | www.ssw-americas.com 1

facebook.com/SSWAmericas

youtube.com/kcipub

twitter.com/SSWAmericas

The Insiders’ Guide to Stainless Steel Issue 1 – February 2018

Stainless Steel World Americas is the leading publication for corrosion resistant

alloy users, suppliers, and fabricators in North, Central, and South America.

www.ssw-americas.com

PH (713)790-0222 • Fax (713) 790-0223Toll Free (877) 971-4500 [email protected]

www.emetalsinc.com

CALL US TODAY FOR A QUOTE!

(800) 243-1676ULBRICH.COM

You have challenges.We have solutions.

Manufacturer of Stainless Steel Seamless

& Welded Pipes, Tubes & U-Tubes

Corporate Office:901-904, Jagdamba Commercial Complex A2, Link Road,Near Movie Time Theatre, Malad (W), Mumbai - 400 064.Tel. : +91-22-4099 9700 -799 Fax : +91-22-4099 9777

Factory Add: 265,PAIKI 3,4,8,12,13Village Nananpur,Taluka Prantij, Dist Sabarkantha, Gujarat,IndiaTel. : +91-2772-302300-399Email : [email protected] : http:// pipe.steamlineind.com

ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001-2004,OHSAS 18001-2007, PED Certified company

COUNTRY NEWS

Latin America’s finished steel production: January to

November 2017The Latin American Steel As-

sociation (Alacero) has report-ed that finished steel, includ-ing stainless steel, production grew approximately four percent during the period of January to November 2017. Total produc-tion reached 60.7 tons, which is four percent higher than the cor-responding time period in 2016 (58.7 tons).

The largest increases in con-sumption were recorded in Mexico (1.0 additional tons, an increase of four percent), Brazil (800 thousand additional tons, up five percent), Argentina (209 thousand additional tons, up five percent), Ecuador (183 thou-sand additional tons, up 13%), Dominican Republic (37 thou-sand additional tons, up nine percent), Chile (35 thousand additional tons, up one percent), Paraguay (25 thousand addi-tional tons, up nine percent), and Colombia (20 thousand ad-ditional tons, up one percent). Conversely, in the same period Venezuela, Bolivia, and Panama recorded declines of 17%, 15% and 11%, respectively.

Metalinox Cogne invests in new cutting machine

The distributor of stainless steel in São Paulo, Brazil, Met-alinox Cogne, has recently in-vested in a brand new cutting machine to help increase pro-duction. This innovative piece of equipment is the SCMD 460 A, which was manufactured by Franho-Brazil.

The saw is a carbide cutting machine and is specifically in-tended to be used for stainless steel alloys. By investing in this state-of-the-art machine, speed and productivity for cut-ting bars will be increased ap-proximately three to four times when compared to a conven-tional band saw. The machine is equipped with automatic ‘Pro-gram Logic of Control,’ which allows for sequential cutting with continuous bar feeding.

With this new investment and increased productivity, Metalinox Cogne now has the ability to supply stainless steel bars (main sizes) within 24 hours after ordering. All of the products have a high level of precision in terms of thickness and quality.

three locations in California: Los Angeles, Modesto, and San Diego.

“The acquisition of Duhig Stainless provides opportunities to grow our Southern California industrial footprint in high puri-

Spotlight OnAs a master distributor of stainless steel tubular prod-ucts, Dover Tubular Alloys, Inc. sells exclusively to metal ser-vice centers, distributors, and other metal wholesalers. Pages 2-3

InterviewsWe speak with Larry Wilkerson, Supervisor of Air Fugitives at the Golden Eagle Refinery in Contra Costa County, California as well as Mike Griggs, a Senior Mechan-ical Engineer-Rotating Equip-ment at Burns & McDonnell. Pages 4-5; 10-11

Special TopicNickel We examine the subject of nick-el through the technical article Overview of welded low nickel chrome-manganese austenitic and ferritic stainless steel. The second part of this article will be published in the April issue. Pages 6-7

It has been reported that Guild International, the company spe-cializing in coil joining equipment for the steel processing, tube producing, and stamping indus-tries, has new ownership with the purchase of the company by three long-term employees. Jo-seph “Joe” Thomas, formally VP of Operations, has been named

After a rigorous process of certificate renewal and tran-sition audits completed by Lloyd's Register, Raccortubi has successfully updated its ISO 9001:2008 certification to the latest ISO 9001:2015 standard.

The new ISO 9001:2015 standard pays special attention to risk management and en-courages all involved to adopt an overall perspective of risk-based thinking. An extremely

President; William “Bill” Marus-chak will continue as Chief Finan-cial Officer; and Mark Wagner, formally Sales Engineer, has been named Vice President of Sales. Mr. Thomas and Mr. Maruschak have each been with the company for over 30 years, while Mr. Wag-ner joined the company in 2009.

Guild International is a pri-

Wolseley Industrial acquires Duhig Stainless, Inc. ty stainless while diversifying our customer base in California,” said Ferguson CEO Kevin Murphy. “We look forward to welcoming their knowledgeable associates to Wolseley Industrial Group.”

“Leading the way with solutions to specialty alloy piping requirements”

www.painc.com

vately-held company that has been owned by Michael Wheel-er, son of Donald Wheeler, the original founder of the company. Mike Wheeler will continue on as Chairman of the Board. Guild International was established in 1958, making 2018 its 60th year in business.

“As a longtime employee, I’ve always known that Guild International was a solid, sta-ble company that built great machines,” said Mr. Thom-as. “When the opportunity was presented to purchase the company from Mike, with Bill and Mark as my partners, I knew this would be a chance of a lifetime. Now Bill, Mark, and myself have the opportunity to take Guild into the future, built on a solid reputation of 60 years serving many industries.”

Guild International is now under new ownership after employee purchase of company

Raccortubi upgrades its certification to the latest ISO 9001:2015 standard

CONTENTSpotlight on... 2-3End-user Interview 4-5Special Topic 6-7Industry Outlook 8-9EPC Interview 10-11Tech Talk 12-13Market Report 14-15Final Words 16

Photo: Raccortubi Group

Ferguson Enterprises, Inc., a distributor of pipe, valves, and fittings in the U.S., has acquired Duhig Stainless, with the deal being completed on January 22, 2018. The company will operate as part of Ferguson’s industri-al division, Wolseley Industrial Group, a leading supplier of prod-ucts and services to the North American industrial market. The company will operate as Duhig Stainless, a Wolseley Industrial Group company.

In business since 1943, Duhig Stainless is a distributor of flu-id control products, including valves, instrumentation, pipe, and tubing, and serves customers in the biopharmaceutical, food and beverage, petrochemical, and waterworks industries. There are

thorough evaluation of the en-tire organization was carried out to ensure that Raccortubi was well equipped with all the tools and requirements to meet its stakeholders’ requests.

Raccortubi Group manu-factures, stocks, and supplies piping materials destined for critical applications such as chemical and petrochemical plants, oil installations, power plants, shipyards, urea plants, and offshore platforms.

Pictured from left to right: Joe Thomas, Bill Maruschak, and Mark Wagner. Photo: Guild International

Photo: Metalinox Cogne

2 SSWAM - February 2018 | www.ssw-americas.com

Spotlight On...

Dover Tubular Alloys: the master distributor where everything starts and ends with the customer

As a master distributor of stainless steel tubular products, Dover Tubular Alloys, Inc. sells exclusively to metal service centers, distributors, and other metal whole-salers. It proudly houses one of the largest inventories of seamless mechanical tubing (hollow bar) and general servicing tubing available throughout the United States. It also maintains an extensive inventory of seamless stainless steel pipe in a variety of grades. Dover Tubular’s products are used throughout a multitude of end-use markets including: oil & gas, power generation, chemical, aerospace, defense, and medical.

With locations in Dover, New Jersey and Houston, Texas, the company maintains a diverse selection of 2,000+ tubing products procured from the world’s leading Domestic, DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement), AML, and Import mills. Both Dover Tubular facilities also have state-of-the-art cutting capabilities enabling the company to offer its customers quick-release cut-to-length pieces of tube and pipe. Just as impressively, almost all orders ship within 24 hours, which helps the company demonstrate and fulfill its commitment to providing superior customer service.

Stainless Steel World Americas had the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Justin Rat-tner, Dover Tubular Alloys’ General Manager, about how over the company’s 35 years of operations, it has always focused on customer service and creating value for its clients through its unique product offerings and services.

By Candace Allison

A company reinventing itselfRattner began our interview by explain-

ing that Dover Tubular Alloys is a third generation family-owned company that specializes in stainless steel tube and pipe. The company is a master distributor in the truest sense of the words selling exclusively to metal service centers, distributors, and other wholesalers. “We basically act as sec-ondary inventory for both the large multi-branch distributors and small single loca-tion operations alike.”

He indicated that historically, the com-pany has served a niche role in market by providing spot inventory of stainless hollow bar and tubing. “In the past, we have es-sentially been a buyout house for the inside sales teams of metal service centers and distributors that needed stock length tubing or cut to length hollow bar.” However, he ex-plains that the company which is celebrat-

ing its 35th anniversary has really begun to change. “Right now we’re in the process of reinventing ourselves and redefining our role within the market,” Rattner stated. However, despite all the recent changes, one thing has remained the same: Dover Tubu-lar’s mission begins with having the right product at the right price and delivering the highest level of customer service.

High-quality products Seamless mechanical tubing/hollow bar

Dover Tubular’s primary product line is seamless mechanical tubing or hollow bar. Hollow bar is often used as a cost-savings alternative to round bar for applications that require an Inner Diameter (ID). The compa-ny inventories hollow bar in a wide array of Outer Diameters (OD’s) and Wall Thick-nesses in grades 304/L and 316/L. Dover Tubular’s stocking program goes above and

Moving beyond just inventory“Over the last few years, our role in

the market has really begun to trans-form. As we’ve repriced our business to become more competitive and begun to offer procurement solutions beyond just standard inventory, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in activity from corporate inventory buyers and more success supporting our customers in project work,” explained Rattner. “As I mentioned earlier, previously the mar-ket perceived us as just a one trick pony – a buyout house that could only quote in stock products. But now we’re offering so much more than that like production cutting, mill direct sourc-ing, and customer supply programs,” Rattner indicated.

Rattner provided an example of a customer who earlier this year ap-proached Dover Tubular to see if they could provide a better solution for providing cut-to-length finished pol-ished parts. At the time, the custom-er was purchasing material overseas, having it sent out for cutting and pol-ishing stateside, and then packaging it and holding a full years’ worth of in-ventory on their warehouse f loor.

“We were able to come in and help our customer by cutting down the complexity and the cost of this pro-cess dramatically. We arranged to have the material produced, polished, cut, inspected, and packaged over-seas. It was then delivered directly to our warehouse where we absorbed the inventory risk and released the prod-uct monthly to our customer. Not only was the overall process much simpler, it saved our customer over 35% in the process all while helping them also free up cash that would have other-wise been tied up in inventory.”

This is a good example of some of the new ways Dover Tubular is creat-ing value for its customers that it would not have attempted in the past. “We’re moving beyond just quoting in stock in-ventory by offering procurement solu-tions and mill-direct sourcing that our customers require to land projects and create more value for their own custom-ers,” indicated Rattner.

Recent additions & investmentsInstead of just listening to their customers’

wants and needs they’ve been translating it into action. “We’re taking calculated risks and aggressively adding new sizes and prod-uct grades in response to the feedback from our customers. And – I think our customers

beyond the conventional A, B, and C inventory items and offers OD’s as large as 16” with walls as thick as 2.00”. The company maintains one of the most diverse inventories of hollow bar within the country and offers quick-turn and production cutting on all sizes.

Seamless & welded general service tubingAnother very popular product line is the

company’s offering of welded and seamless general service tubing often referred to as instrumentation, heat exchanger, condenser, or boiler tubing. Dover Tubular inventories a myriad of sizes, which are available in do-mestic, import, AML (Approved Manufactur-ers’ List), and DFARS compliant variations. Certain instrumentation and heat exchanger tubing sizes are even available in hard-to-find grades such as Duplex 2205 and 310S/H. There are only two or three other distributors in the United States offering these grades of tubing. Most other master distributors can’t compete with Dover in terms of size range and variety of products. By stocking these more difficult-to-find alloys and offering ‘in between’ wall sizes, Dover Tubular is able to provide clients with more value by being a ‘one-stop shop’ for all of their tubing needs.

Seamless pipeIt isn’t just tubing solutions that offer

clients value. Dover Tubular also has a large selection of pipe ranging from the standard grades of 304/L and 316/L to the more rare 310S/H and Duplex 2205. Rat-tner also detailed that since pipe is such a commodity, Dover Tubular differentiates it-self by specializing in the heavier schedules such as 120, 160, and XXH and by offering quick-turn cut-to-length pieces of all pipe sizes. Currently seamless pipes are available up to 16” NPS and later this year 18” NPS will also be an option. But for Dover Tubular having the right product mix is just the be-ginning as the company is also adding value through its services.

As a master distributor, you’re playing a team sport with your cus-tomers. Our customers can’t secure an order if we’re not giving them a competitive enough offer. And we want to support our teammates in any way possible.”

− Justin Rattner


Spotlight On...

Dover Tubular Alloys: the master distributor where everything starts and ends with the customer

are really starting to notice the difference and they feel that we are moving in the right direction to better fulfill their needs.” Dover estimates that they’ve introduced over 125 new products last year alone. “… and the big news around here is that we’re about to ven-ture outside of stainless for the first time in our company’s history. Later this year we’ll begin selling Aluminum Tubing in 6061-T6,” which Rattner indicated was launched based on a combination of data analytics and input from his top customers.

Another important factor to the com-pany’s success as a master distributor is its emphasis on continual improvement through capital investments. For example, in the fourth quarter of 2016, the company began using STRATIX, a state-of-the-art ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) plat-form created by Invera. This technology has enabled Dover Tubular to shift some of its resources away from day-to-day tasks by automating certain business processes and helping the company become more competitive on the purchasing and sales

side through better sales analysis tools and improved forecasting modules.

On the equipment side, a new saw was recently purchased that can cut up to 18" outer diameter (OD), which later this year will greatly expand cutting capabilities in both facilities. Both of these significant in-vestments have assisted Dover Tubular in becoming a more competitive supplier.

Unparalleled customer serviceDover Tubular is also able to support its

customers by providing a level of service unparalleled within the industry. They are a ‘lightning fast’ supplier that has the abili-ty to provide products within hours instead of days. Clients located in the Gulf Coast region really appreciate this, as often they will place orders that require pick up with-in hours or even minutes. Dover Tubular is able to accommodate these time sensitive requests because its basic business model was built from the ground up to be as effi-cient as possible. “We have a really great team here,” Rattner indicated. “We are able to quote fast, cut fast, package fast, and get you from A to B efficiently and accurately be-cause we work together as a team all the way from procurement to final delivery.”

When asked what sets Dover Tubular apart from its competitors, Rattner was quick to respond, “It comes down to three words in my mind: inventory, expertise, and efficiency. It all starts with having the right inventory in stock, using our exper-tise to offer the right products and solu-tions, and then being efficient and nimble enough to deliver on the promises we make our customers. We do things the old-fash-ioned way here and we do whatever we can to make our customers shine in the pro-cess. In my opinion, any master distribu-tor can be the lowest number on a buyer’s spreadsheet, but when things go wrong do you have the faith that your supplier will stand behind you? When a due date is missed do they work with you to help resolve the issue? When you have a claim do they stand behind you and resolve it quickly? Some do but not everybody. For us like I said, we do business the old fash-ion way - we care about our customers and we prioritize the long-term business rela-

Company name: Dover Tubular Alloys, Inc.

Locations: New Jersey–Headquarters: 50,000-square-feet200 West Clinton Street, Dover, NJ 07801Texas: 30,000-square-feet6500 Bingle Road, Houston, TX 77092

Year established: 1983

Products: Stainless mechanical tubing, hollow bar, instrumen-tation tube, condenser tube, heat-exchanger tube, boiler tube, aluminum tubing.

Industries: Petrochemical, railcar, automotive, structural, mili-tary, shipbuilding, etc.

Industries: Oil & gas, chemical & petrochemical, paper & pulp, wa-ter & wastewater, desalination, power generation, etc.

Website: www.dovertubular.com

Dover Tubular Alloys at a glance

We’re taking calculated risks and aggressively adding new sizes and product grades in response to the feedback from our customers. And – I think our customers are really starting to notice the difference…”

− Justin Rattner

As we’ve repriced our business to become more competitive and begun to offer procurement solu-tions beyond just standard invento-ry, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in activity from corporate inventory buyers and more success support-ing our customers in project work.”

− Justin Rattner

We care about our customers and we prioritize the long-term business relationship with them over this trans-

action, this quarter, or even this year."

− Justin Rattner

Production range:Seamless mechanical tubing / hollow barOD: 1/2” to 16” Walls: 0.188” to 2.00”Grades: 304/L, 316/LCutting: All Sizes

Seamless & welded general service tubingOD: 1/16” to 12” Walls: 0.010” to 0.156”Grades: 304/L, 316/L, 310S/H, Duplex 2205Cutting: All Sizes

Seamless pipeNPS: ¼” to 16” Schedules: 40S to XXHGrades: 304/L, 316/L, 310S/H, Duplex 2205Cutting: All Sizes

Aluminum seamless drawn tubeOD: ¼” to 4” Walls: 0.028” to 0.250”Grades: 6061-T6Cutting: All Sizes

tionship with them over this transaction, this quarter, or even this year, and that al-lows us to make decisions that may not be in our best short-term interest but are in the best interest of the long-term relation-ship with that customer.”

He continued to state how essential it is to understand and listen to what the customers’ needs are. It isn’t just about quick quotes and supplying stock, it is about collaborating with your custom-ers and going above and beyond to assist them with their needs.

Looking ahead to 2018 and beyond, Dover Tubular will be putting even more new products on its shelves and offering even more new services. The plan is to continue evolving beyond a buyout house

to become a more complete solutions pro-vider. Rattner concluded our interview by aptly stating, “Our overall goal is to be more competitive and to become a more complete supplier for our customers. We’re trying to accomplish that by stocking the right products and by growing in a manner that allows us to continue to be as efficient as we’ve always been.”


Tesoro was founded in 1968 and was primarily focused on petroleum explora-tion and production. The company eventually shifted its focus to refining and is now one of the leading independent refining, marketing, and logistics companies in the United States. Having acquired Western Refining on June 1st, 2017, Tesoro changed its name to Andeavor and now has approximately 1.2 million barrels of refining capacity, 13,000 employees, and more than 3,000 retail locations. Stainless Steel World Americas had the recent pleasure of speaking with Larry Wilkerson, Supervisor of Air Fugitives at the Golden Eagle Refinery in Contra Costa County, California. He was delighted to discuss how he ended up in an environmental role, the main cause of leaks at the plant and the measures that are taken to prevent them from occurring.

By Candace Allison

Larry’s career in the refining industry began in 1979 when he worked as an Op-erator at Texaco Refining and Marketing. Learning the intricacies of the job and gain-ing more knowledge about the industry as a whole sparked a deeper inquisitiveness in Larry, and so he enrolled in educational classes that focused on the ins and outs of petroleum and environmental technology. While Larry openly admits that these class-es were initially a way for him to merely gain self-knowledge, he slowly but surely used this information to work his way up through the ranks. He soon became a Pro-duction Coordinator and spent 26 years

working at a Shell refinery before it was sold. Larry, however, was fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to stay with the company and take over the Air Com-pliance Department. Using the knowledge he had learned throughout the years, Larry took on a role that was new and foreign to him. “I didn’t really know what I was get-ting into, but I took what I knew, both op-erational and environmental, and applied that to the job,” he explains. “I then had an offer from Tesoro to come to the Bay Area in California as a Supervisor in the opera-tions department. After a few years, I had an offer to take over their fugitive emissions

program and bring it to the level of a Tier 1 program. That’s how I ended up where I am today.”

Larry is currently the Supervisor of Air Fugitives at the Golden Eagle Refinery in Contra Costa County, California. He is pri-marily responsible for coordinating the LDAR program, assisting in the routine inspections for compliance and managing the QQQ and HES MACT programs as part of the Environmental Department. Larry also manages an in-house LDAR program at the refinery. Though this is uncommon, it works well at this facility. His daily du-ties tend to involve monitoring the data-base, assessing the status of inspection and repairs and attending meetings. Larry’s day is fast-paced and doesn’t focus solely on LDAR (Leak Detection and Repair), as many would assume. He mentions that his routine changes from day-to-day; regula-tory reporting, interaction with operations and maintenance is just a small portion of his day. “Being in the Bay Area means that we’re subject to some of the most stringent regulations in the country, and the rules are continuously changing. We’re current-ly implementing the latest rule changes by the local APCD (Air Pollution Control Dis-trict) – all the refineries in the Bay Area

are collaborating as part of a joint effort,” says Larry. While this can be a challenge, Larry is lucky in his current role as he is constantly meeting and working with new people. He says, “Often times in a refinery you get stuck working with the same people and you almost never venture out of that realm. In this role, I work with a lot of the same people but I also work with new peo-ple every day. Whether it’s in the refining sector or in the regulatory area of the busi-ness, there’s always somebody new to meet and something new that comes up. That’s what I enjoy.”

Issues in an aging plantThe plant that Larry works at is over 100

years old, and because of that there are nu-merous problems that occur due to aging equipment. As the machines and the com-ponents have been built at different stages throughout the lifetime of the plant, there tends to be issues when it comes to iso-lating the fault. Larry explains that many years ago plants weren’t worried about isolating the problem as VOC (volatile or-ganic compound) leaks were not a concern. However, nowadays if there is a leak in the system it can be nearly impossible to repair the equipment to meet today’s standards

Leak prevention in a 100-year-old refinery An interview with Larry Wilkerson, Supervisor of Air Fugitives

at the Golden Eagle Refinery

End-user Interview

Product loading terminal.

Crude distillation unit.


without having to shut everything down. In older plants, process units were not de-signed with isolation valves for each indi-vidual section of the unit. “That can be re-ally challenging,” he says. “You may have to do a complete shutdown and take ev-erything out of service. We can delay the repair (DOR) if it meets the requirements of the APCD rules, but we only use that option if there is no other alternative.”

Despite the older status of the plant, Larry doesn’t encounter many problems with obsolescence. The plant is system-atically updating the equipment to more energy efficient, environmentally friendly standards as time goes on. For example, at Andeavor’s Martinez plant, a large gas fired steam turbine which was like a jet engine was recently upgraded to an elec-tric motor to drive a compressor, resulting in significantly lower NOx emissions. This is one of the many ways in which the re-finery is upgrading to become an efficient and regulatory compliant facility.

Methods of leak preventionWhen it comes to working in a refinery,

particularly as part of the Environmental Department, the prevention of leaks is a key aspect of the daily operations. To prevent leaks from occurring, the mate-rial of choice for much of the equipment, including pumps, hoses, coupling, and valves, is stainless steel. This equipment is essential in nearly every application

throughout the plant, from pumping the water to controlling the f low of materi-al, and everything has to be leak-free. “Whether it is a temperature related or process related application, you have to have something that’s corrosion-resis-tant–even in a water service application,” says Larry. While the plant has nearly ev-ery type of metal alloy one could imagine, including copper and steel, Larry says that stainless steel is one of the more crit-ical materials in use. However, although material selection is an important factor in leak prevention, issues can still occur.

“When I first took over this depart-ment we had a lot of issues with our hos-es and couplings at the gasoline loading rack,” says Larry. “They were always leaking. However, I was familiar with this regulation, which was fairly new at the time, from having worked at the Shell terminal in Central Valley. So, we up-graded to better equipment to meet these regulations and put a repair program in place. I went to the terminal and trained the operators on how to recognize signs of leakage and repair methods. That’s a particularly successful program we have in place today.”

In addition to the repair program, Lar-ry elaborates that the plant takes further measures to prevent leaks from occur-ring. He has trained his technicians to do the initial repairs of the valves, which are the most common cause of leaks in Lar-

ry’s experience, in particular the valve packing. Because of this training, his team has fixed approximately 80-90% of the plant’s leaks on the first attempt, as regulations in the Bay Area require leaks to be minimized within 24 hours and final repairs completed in 7 days. “Between the repairs, inspections, better quality packing and doing the right work at the right time, our leak rate is below one percent and has been for several years, which is incredible,” says Larry. “SAGE Environmental did our last audit and they were very impressed.”

Low-leak technology As more and more regulations are intro-

duced into the industrial sector, particular-ly by The Environmental Protection Agen-cy (EPA), new developments in technology are essential in ensuring refineries are able to comply with these new rules. One in-novation that Larry mentions as having a real benefit is certified low-leak technolo-gy which is being added to a lot of consent decrees. While the Golden Eagle Refinery is exempt from this due to their low leak rate, they use this technology nonetheless. This, as Larry explains, is essential for the upkeep of the plant. Additionally, Larry helped set up tracking methodologies for other plants throughout the corporation. He says, “It’s making a huge difference in helping other facilities adhere to the more stringent guidelines of the consent decree. We’ve come a long way in being able to certi-fy valve packing to be 500ppm or less. Here at Andeavor Martinez we’re currently at 100ppm, the lowest standard in the world.”

While chronic leakers used to cause many of the issues in the plant, this is now being prevented due to better reliability

practices, high quality products and en-suring the correct component is selected for the correct service. To add to that, Larry mentions that new technology such as Infrared (IR) Cameras are also useful in detecting and keeping the level of VOC leaks down.

Larry’s optimism is evident, as is his outlook on the future of the industry. He believes that the industry as a whole is going to continue to grow, and stress-es that the amount of time that has been devoted to environmental progress is staggering. “I have seen so many chang-es since I began working in this industry. Emissions were sent off into the atmo-sphere and solid materials were washed down the sewer. That’s unheard of now,” he says. “Between the safety and environ-mental changes that have happened over the last 40 years–I’m just amazed. It’s good to have alternative energies going forward and to be environmentally-con-scious. But we need oil and gas. We’re not going to survive without it.”

End-user Interview

800.345.7546 • 814.542.2545 814.542.9977 fax www.bonneyforge.com

Gasoline and diesel truck loading rack.

Larry Wilkerson, Supervisor of Air Fugitives at the Golden Eagle Refinery.

Delayed coking unit and portion of Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU).


Special Topic Nickel

Welding of low nickel chrome-manganese austenitic and ferritic stainless steel is an emerging area of research. Due to nickel price volatility, there has been increased interest in no-nickel or low-nickel economical grades of stainless steel. Chrome-manganese austenitic (“standard 200-series”) and ferritic stain-less steel (“standard 300-series”) grades with well-defined technical properties have proved acceptable materials for specific applications for many years.

This increase in the use and production of these low nickel grades is not cur-rently matched by a proper level of user knowledge. So there is a risk that they may be used in unsuitable applications. It is very important to cultivate the method of fabrication like welding. This article looks at the behavior of low nick-el chrome-manganese and ferritic austenitic stainless steel in terms of micro-structure and sensitization effects.

By Urade VP and Ambade SP, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering

An overview of welded low nickel chrome-manganese austenitic and ferritic stainless steel

Part one of two

Introduction In the late 1980s, a nickel crisis caused the

Indian government to reduce nickel imports [1]. This led to development and production of the chrome manganese and ferritic stainless steel grades in that country. Increased knowl-edge of these grades consequently began to be acquired and many high suitable applica-tions for the grades emerged. As a result there has been increased interest in economical

low-nickel grades of stainless steel having properties similar to AISI-300 series stain-less steel. The AISI-200 series and AISI-400 series grades of stainless steel are well-known examples of low-Ni stainless steel.

Low nickel chrome-manganese grades were first developed in the early 1930s [2]. As a way of conserving available nickel, which led to the increased use of chrome-manganese grades during the 1950s in America and new grades

with higher properties have continued to be developed [1]. Rises in the material’s popular-ity have been linked to highly increased nickel prices and advances in steel production tech-nology. This leads to higher use of AISI 200 series, alloyed with manganese (Mn) and the other alloying elements like nitrogen (N) and copper (Cu). Manganese acts as a substitute of nickel, in order to stabilize austenite phase [1,3]. These low-nickel stainless steels are econom-ical than 300-series and are popularly known as chrome-manganese stainless steel [4]. Its current contribution in total stainless steel production is more than 10% [5,6]. In the future 200 series alloys will have greater demand and will act as replacement over 300 series for variety of industrial applications [6,7]. Low nickel Cr-Mn SSs are used in various applica-tions like home accessories, home appliances, light poles, construction, outdoor installa-tions, etc. where high corrosion resistance is not required [1,8,9]. In some applications weld-ing of the materials is important. Ferritic stainless steel are BCC crystal structure with iron-chromium alloys containing 12% to 30% of chromium with a carbon content below 0.10% along with other alloying elements, no-tably molybdenum having similar properties to those of mild steel but show better corro-sion resistance [3,10,11]. FSS are noted for their excellent resistance towards stress corrosion cracking and good resistance to pitting and crevice corrosion in chloride environments [12], due to their lower cost of production and good resistance to corrosion, as compared with austenitic stainless steels it becomes sec-ond most widely used type of stainless steel [13]. As FSS is heated above a critical tempera-ture, austenitic structure is obtained and par-tially transform into martensite on cooling but not enough to impart high strength [12]. These steels exhibit good formability, duc-tility, and moderately better yield strength to those of the austenitic grade, but the high temperature strength of FSS is somewhat poor. Most commonly used ferritic stainless steel grades are 12% and 17% chromium-con-taining grades, which are used mostly in ve-hicle exhaust systems and the latter mostly in washing machines, cooking utensils, and indoor architecture. Due to its magnetic prop-erty, these steels can be easily distinguished from austenitic stainless steels grades.

Welding is one of the most economical and widely used processes to fabricate stain-less steel structures [2]. The welding processes have been used in different applications such

as chemical industrial equipment repairs, pipelines, automotive exhaust gas systems. However, welding has powerful effects on the microstructure and hence is expected to have strong influence on the corrosion and mechanical properties of the welded samples. Some of the problems associated with welding in the austenitic stainless steels are sensitiza-tion of the weld heat affected zone, hot crack-ing of weld metal and decrease in corrosion resistance. This article provides a review of the various research activities carried out on welded low nickel chrome-manganese auste-nitic and ferritic stainless steel.

Process parameters Welding technology has the widespread

applications but needs constant upgrading. Experienced welding personnel are needed to consistently produce high quality welds. Welding parameters should be selected properly for a given task to provide a better weld quality, which is identified by its mi-cro-structure and correct weld bead shape, and relied on the amount of spatter. Inves-tigation into the relationship between the weld bead shape and welding process pa-rameters began in the mid-1900s. Nearly 90% of welding in world is carried out by an arc welding process; therefore it is imper-ative to discuss the effects of welding pa-rameters on the weldability of the materials during the arc welding.

Welding current Y.D. Han studied the influence of welding

parameters in shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) process and studied that welding current (I) is the most influential param-eter because it affects the current density and hence the rate of filler and base mate-rial [1,13,14]. This welding current influences on mechanical and microstructural prop-erties by altering its weld pool and heat af-fected zone (HAZ) width. Penetration and reinforcement increase with the increase in welding current. If the current is too high at a given welding speed, the depth of pene-tration will also be too high so that the weld may melt. Undercut and digging arcs are produced due to high current, which also leads to waste of electrodes in the form of excessive reinforcement. This overweld-ing increases the weld shrinkage and led towards the greater distortion. As welding current increases, weld bead shape increas-es until a critical value is reached and then


Special Topic Nickel

starts decreasing by using polarity DCEP. But when DCEN polarity is used weld bead shape increases with the increase in current for entire range [15]. Heat affected zone also increases with the increase in welding cur-rent if same flux is used. Too low current may lead to inadequate penetration and in-complete fusion may result. Too low current also leads to overlapping, inadequate pene-tration, and unstable arc.

Welding speed Welding speed is the linear rate at which

an arc is moved along the weld joint. With any combination of welding current and welding voltage, the effect of changing the welding speed conforms to a general pat-tern. If the welding speed is increased, heat input per unit length of weld is decreased and less filler metal is required per unit length of the weld, resulting in less weld re-inforcement. Thus, the weld bead becomes smaller. Welding speed is the most affecting parameter for weld penetration other than current. This is true except for excessively slow speeds when the molten weld pool is beneath the welding electrode. Then the penetrating force of the arc is cushioned by the molten pool. Excessive speed may cause uneven bead shape, porosity, undercutting, cracking, arc blow, and higher slag inclu-sion in the weld metal. Aksoy observed that higher welding speed results in less heat af-fected zone and finer grains [16]. Within lim-its, welding speed can be adjusted to control weld size and penetration. Relatively slow welding speed provides time for gases to escape from the molten metal as a result reduction in porosity. An excessive slow welding speed produces a rounded weld bead shape, which is subject to cracking and higher arc exposure, which is uncomfort-able for the operator. Too large molten pool may also result due to low welding speed that flows around the arc and lead to burn,

rough bead, and slag inclusions. It was also reported that the welding speed did not af-fect the metal deposition rate significantly.

Electrode size Electrode size affects the depth of pen-

etration and weld bead shape and at fixed current. Electrode size mainly influences the deposition rate. At any given current, a small diameter electrode will have a higher deposition rate and higher current density than a larger electrode. However, a large diameter electrode will carry more cur-rent than a small electrode, and produce a higher deposition rate at higher amperage. For the same values of current, arc voltage, and welding speed, an increase in electrode diameter results in a slight increase in the weld bead shape [17].

References

1.New 200-series Steels (2005) An Opportunity or A Threat to the Image of Stainless Steel? ISSF, Brussels, Belgium.

2.The European stainless steel Development association. Materials and Applications series 12.

3.Franks R, Binder WO, Thompson J (1955) Austenitic chromium-manganese- nickel steels con-taining nitrogen, Transactions of the ASM 47: 231-266.

4. Lippold JC, Kotecki DJ (2005) Welding Metallurgy and Weldability of Stainless Steels. John Wiley & Sons Inc. UK.

5. Oshima T, Habara Y, Kuroda K (2007) Efforts to save nickel in austenitic stainless steel. ISIJ Int 47: 359-364.

6. Shankar Rao V, Singhal LK (2009) Electrochemical and Surface Analytical Approach to Passive Film on 200 Series Stainless Steels Formed in Sulfuric Acid. ISIJ Int 49: 1902-1906.

7. Vashishtha H, Taiwade RV, Khatirkar RK, Vijay Ingle A, Dayal RK (2014) Welding behav-iour of low nickel chrome-manganese stainless steel. ISIJ international 54: 1361-1367.

8. ASSDA Technical Bulletin (2006) 200-Series Stainless Steel Cr-Mn Grades (1st edn), ASSDA, Australia.

9. Parmar RS (2004) Welding Engineering and Technology (1st eds.). Khanna Publication, New Delhi, India.

10. Balasubramanian V, Shanmugan K, Lakshminarayanam AK (2008) Effect of autogenous arc welding processes on fatigue crack growth behavior of ferritic stainless steel joints. Iron and Steel Institute of Japan International 48: 489-495.

11. Kotecki D (1998) Ensuring the stamina of stainless steel. Welding Journal 77: 41-45. 12. American Iron and Steel Institute (1979) Welding of Stainless Steel and Other Joining Method. Washington, D.C.

13.Lakshminarayanam AK, Balasubramanian V (2012) Evaluation Of Microstructure And Me-chanical Properties Of Laser Beam Welded AISI 409M Grade Ferrictic Stainless Steel. Journal of Iron and Steel Research International 19: 72-78.

14. Han YD, Jing HY, Xu LY (2012) Welding heat input effect on the hydrogen permeation in the X80 steel welded joints. Mater Chem Phys132: 216-222.

15. Fontana MG (2005) Corrosion Engineering. (3rd Ed) Tata McGraw Hill Education, New York.

16. Eroglu M, Aksoy M, Orhan N (1999) Effect of coarse initial grain size on microstructure and mechanical properties of weld metal and HAZ of low carbon steel. Mater Sci Eng A 269: 59-66.

17. Cornu J (1988) Advanced Welding Systems-Part2. London, IFS Limited.

*Corresponding author: Urade VP, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yeshwantrao Chavan Col-lege of engineering, Nagpur, India, Tel: 07104237919; E-mail: [email protected]

Citation: Urade VP, Ambade SP (2016) An Overview of Welded Low Nickel Chrome-Manganese Austenitic and Ferritic Stainless Steel. J Material Sci Eng 5: 231. doi:10.4172/2169-0022.1000231

Copyright: © 2016 Urade VP, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Don’t miss part 2! Part two of this article will be published in the April issue of Stainless Steel World Americas.

Our HigH Performance Tube, STriP and Powder products are globally recognized for outstanding performance and corrosion resistance in the toughest offshore conditions – for over 40 years.

When failure is not an option – AMETEK Specialty Metal Products.

• Downhole hydraulic control and injection lines

• High pressure control and instrumentation up to 60,000 psi

• Subsea umbilicals and dynamic risers

• Downhole MDW/LWD pressure housing

Oil & Gas applicatiOns include:• Pfinodal® CuNiSn (BeCu replacement) washers and bearings

• Pfinodal® strip for shape charges in big hole perforations

• Atomized hardfacing metal powders for HVOF, HVAF, PTA, cold spray and laser cladding

• Cobalt strip for re-facing valve seats

second best.no Place for

www.ametekmetals.com

Tube • sTrip • powder


Industry Outlook

Since 1950, the melting production of stainless steel has increased almost fif-ty-fold, outperforming practically all other major metals and alloys. In the first of a series of reports for Stainless Steel World Americas, industry insider Peter Cranfield has dug through historical production data–and his own memory banks–to explain this phenomenal and sustained growth.

By Peter Cranfield, Consultant, World Bureau of Metal Statistics

The competitive position of stainless steelThe first in a series of articles

Long term historical growthTo this very day the actual origins of stain-

less steel remain a matter of some dispute. Curious readers might like to peruse a most interesting article available on the British Stainless Steel Association website for more information. However, for our purposes let us just assume it was around 1910-12, give or take a year or two.

What we can confidently state however is that by 1950 global stainless melted produc-tion was around 1 million tons (Mt). Main producers were in Europe, USA, and Japan. It is interesting to compare the performance of stainless with other high volume metals shown in Table 1. The striking conclusion is the phenomenal success of stainless from 1950 to the present day. In 2016 stainless melting production reached 46.0 Mt. So it had increased 46 times in seven decades. During the same interval aluminium pro-duction rose 37 times higher, crude steel nine

times and copper and zinc, the other high volume metals, grew seven times. Stainless averaged seven percent annually which only aluminium came close to matching. Copper and zinc grew at three percent and crude steel at four percent.

Now the fact that stainless outperformed other high volume metals will come as no sur-prise to most readers who are undoubtedly well aware of its merits. What is impressive is the longevity and the degree of this outperfor-mance. In fact the true performance is even higher because we are looking here at melted production. The yields until the early 1980s from ingots were around 65%, current yields from slabs to flat and long products are in ex-cess of 80%.

Bear in mind that economic measures such as GDP or industrial production would be around half this growth rate. So the positive substitution or increase in the intensity of use of stainless has been enduring to say the least.

How did stainless perform so well?One of the advantages of stainless is that it

possesses that unique combination of proper-ties. Not only heat and corrosion resistance, but also strength, ductility, hygiene factors, choices of surface finish, and aesthetic appeal among many other qualities. The stainless steel development associations and industry associations for nickel, chrome, and moly have done a lot over many decades to promote the use of stainless in place of competing materi-als. The merits of life cycle costing are now ac-cepted and applied in many applications both in private industry and the public sector.

Over the years there has been a move to longevity and product quality. In some appli-cations crude steel and zinc coated galvanised

steel have been replaced by stainless. Stain-less rebar continues to make inroads. As a personal aside, I remember many years ago when I was working in the nickel industry for Inco how a colleague bought a stainless steel spade for gardening. This was unheard of. It was a year or two before I could afford such luxury. Now nearly all the garden tools in my shed are stainless. I also recall at around this time visiting a leading high quality kitchen appliance company to research their mate-rials use. They had switched to stainless for washing machine drums but reported that their dishwashers worked perfectly well and were quieter with plastic door liners. Fortu-nately their customers preferred stainless so they switched back.

Mt 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2016 2016 div.by 1950

growth % p.a.

Crude steel

189.0 347.0 595.0 717.0 770.0 850.0 1,433.0 1,628.0 9 4%

Stainless steel

1.0 2.2 5.0 6.9 12.9 19.3 31.0 46.0 46 7%

Primary aluminium

1.6 4.2 10.0 15.3 19.2 25.1 40.5 58.0 37 6%

Refined copper

3.2 5.0 7.5 9.3 10.8 14.8 19.2 23.5 7 3%

Slab zinc 2.1 3.1 5.0 6.1 6.6 8.9 12.5 13.9 7 3%

1950s 1960s 1970s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000-10 2010-16

Crude steel 7% 6% 2% 2% 1% 1% 6% 2%

Stainless steel 9% 9% 5% 5% 7% 4% 5% 7%

Primary aluminium 11% 10% 5% 5% 2% 3% 5% 6%

Refined copper 5% 4% 2% 2% 2% 3% 3% 3%

Slab zinc 4% 5% 2% 2% 1% 3% 4% 1%

Table 1: Long term growth in global metals production.

Figure 1: Analysis of stainless steel melting production from 1970 to 2016.


Industry Outlook

The competitive position of stainless steel, part 2Peter’s analysis of the rise of stainless will continue in the April issue of Stain-less Steel World Americas, when he will reflect on how China and Asia gained market share, explain why volume growth does not necessarily imply finan-cial success, and also discuss the restructuring amongst European producers, amongst other topics.

Aluminium has performed well and com-petes with stainless in some sectors e.g. ar-chitecture, building, and construction (ABC), and transportation. On my return to the UK from The Hague some twenty years ago, we bought a house with a typical farmhouse type Aga range. So we needed to buy cookware to fit the runners in the ovens. The local Aga deal-er explained that he stocked both aluminium and stainless, which were the same dimen-sions and a similar price, but in his view the aluminium was superior. I don’t remember his suspect logic and can only assume it was to do with weight. Of course I extolled the far superior merits of stainless and explained the error of his ways. Needless to say I did not get a decent discount. On the plus side I still cook with the same stainless cookware today, as good as new. I think it is fair to say that not much of the aluminium growth has been at the expense of stainless but results from ap-plications such as beverage cans and foil for food packaging where glass and tinplate have lost out. The latter affecting crude steel.

Copper is widely used in electrical appli-cations and for water storage, heating and tubing as well as brass (copper/zinc) fittings. Here, too, there has been some substitution by stainless.

Major zinc uses are galvanized steel, brass, and die castings. There are some loss-es to stainless and in the case of die castings to plastics.

The golden quarter century 1950-1974

This period was the start of the rap-id growth in stainless and other metals

(see Table 2). Following the depression of the 1930s and the devastation of the Second World War, there was a period of immense reconstruction. In Europe the Marshall Plan stimulated investment and economic recovery. This period came to an end stimulated by a quadrupling of the oil price in late 1973 and lower mac-roeconomic growth rates, but there were also signs that the intensity of use was slowing. When most households had a stainless kitchen sink, washing machine drum, or cooking hollow-ware these were not replaced for many years. Of course there was still scope for growth outside the (then) large economic powerhouses of USA, Europe, and Japan.

Mid-1970s to mid-1980s slowdownThere was a second energy crisis in

1979, which precipitated a severe reces-sion in 1980/81. In economic terms this inflationary period, triggered by the sharp rise in oil prices, caused a hike in interest rates and restrictive economic policies in Europe and the USA, which were the main stainless consuming regions.

Although it is not apparent from Table 2, stainless production peaked at 6.6 Mt in 1974 and again at 6.9 Mt in 1980, annual growth of less than one percent pa. Underlying growth was higher but there was the usual boom/bust high inventory building, which turned a bad market situation into a crisis.

And, whilst the “old economies” were struggling, newcomers in the stainless steel arena were keen to grasp sales op-portunities….

Mt 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2016 % oftotal

Europe 2.0 2.9 6.4 8.2 7.8 7.6 17%

USA 1.2 1.5 1.9 2.2 2.2 2.5 5%

China 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.6 11.3 24.9 54%

Others 1.8 2.5 4.3 8.4 9.8 11.0 24%

Total 5.0 6.9 12.9 19.3 31.0 46.0 100%

Table 2: Growth in stainless melting production by region.

About the authorPeter Cranfield has a BSc (Econ) from London Universi-ty and an MBA from Warwick. He started his career at Inco serving as market research manager and also pro-ducing the annual publication World Stainless Steel Sta-tistics (in 1986 taken over by WBMS). Later he joined Shell-owned Billiton in The Hague for 15 years working with a number of metals and industrial minerals as well

as strategic planning. Peter then moved back to London with BHP Billiton working in business planning and analysis in nickel, cobalt, and stainless. He has regularly delivered presentations on nickel and stainless at conferences around the globe. Since retiring he has consulted for BHPB, the Nickel Insti-tute, and now the UK-based World Bureau of Metal Statistics (WBMS – see www.world-bureau.com for more details).


EPC Interview

Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a global leader in engineering, archi-tecture, construction, environmental, and consulting solutions for a variety of industries, including oil & gas, power, water, manufacturing, construction, and more. Mike Griggs, Senior Mechanical Engineer - Rotating Equipment, has been employed by Burns & McDonnell for the past five years, and attributes his suc-cessful career to his flexibility and ability to juggle multiple projects and tasks.

Stainless Steel World Americas recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Mike in Houston, Texas to discuss his daily routine, his experience working with pumps, and his admirable role as a mentor within the company.

By Candace Allison

The role of a Senior Mechanical Engineer – Rotating Equipment at Burns & McDonnell

An Interview with Mike Griggs

Mike earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Texas Tech University and subsequently got a job as an Application Engineer at Dresser-Rand where he worked on steam turbines and centrifugal compres-sors. Eager to progress further, Mike re-turned to school part-time, while simulta-neously working full-time at Dresser-Rand, and got his Bachelor of Science in Mechan-ical Engineering. “It was a busy time. I then ended up back down in Houston where I got a job at Burns & McDonnell and I’ve been here for almost five years,” says Mike.

Currently, Mike is a Senior Mechanical Engineer and works specifically with ro-

opment, drawing reviews, and develop-ing requests for quotations, whether for pumps, compressors, fans or turbines. He mentions that at times the data sheets be-tween a pump and a motor can be quite large; sometimes over 100 pages. This, as he explains, can be very time-consuming. However, Mike wouldn’t have it any other way. “I used to like being in the field, but as I get older I’m content with doing my in-house drawing reviews and I enjoy the reg-ularity of the day. Being able to go home at the end of the day and not be dispatched to Nova Scotia, for example, is reassuring,” says Mike. While the desk job has some disadvantages, he is happy to occasionally visit the site of the project, and not have to live out of a suitcase.

Working in the pump industry Over the years Mike has had experience

working with a variety of pumps and pump-ing equipment. At present, he is working with big BB style injection pumps, includ-ing BB3 and BB5 high pressure casing, and larger pumps for boiler feedwater. In ad-dition to being a Senior Mechanical Engi-neer, he is also the RE (Responsible Engi-neer) for his current project, which involves Tier 3 conversion on a Tier 3 refinery; an EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) requirement that a lot of refineries are per-forming at the moment. “That has been a lot of our activity lately; working on alkyla-tion units and debottlenecking projects and there’s a lot of pumps on each service, such as boiler feedwater, injection, ethane injec-tion and debutanizers. I could be working with 20 different pumps at any given time,” explains Mike. “You have to be able to jug-gle in this industry and to be able to wear several different hats. You might be work-ing with the same pump with two different end users, but they may look completely different because of the way their instru-mentation is set up. It really boils down to end-user specifications.”

Working with a variety of pumps can also mean a variety of issues, as Mike knows only too well. He explains that he does see a lot of quality issues with casting, and that a major challenge as an EPC company is the ability to get a consistent quality with a fin-ished pump from OEMs. He also adds that quality documentation is a hugely import-ant factor for end-users, as it provides full

traceability and it lessens the possibility of pump or seal failures. Vibration is a key issue when working with pumps. Mike’s experience appears to be no different. He says: “I don’t tend to see many problems with holding pressure or leaking, but the most common issue that I deal with on a day-to-day basis is vibration. We have a lot of soft footing issues on motors, and right now I’m dealing with a larger base plate that has some residence issues.”

Mike elaborates that he is also involved with pump selection and uses a lot of the OEM sizing programs, which help with guiding the process group with sizing or with sourcing the correct pump type. “Gen-erally, when I send a data sheet out to an OEM or pump manufacturer I allow them to have their say and decide whether it should be a BB or an OH2, for example,” he says. “I tend to leave the onus on the pump OEM if I can.” While Mike usually uses the client’s specific AML (Approved Man-

Corrosion, not your problem!

The use of highly alloyed stainless steels, nickel alloys and titanium ensure the safe and effi cient operation of your facilities in the chemical process industry, energy and high temperature technology.

Hempel Special Metals stocks and processes sheets, rods and tubes in high-performance materials in their service centers. Our specialists support your investment and maintenance projects by advice on materials, package deals and supply of components.

Our service: Your advantage by smart logistics solutions.

Hempel Special Metals

Germany – Switzerland – Great Britain –

Poland – Italy – Hong Kong – China

and more under www.hempel-metals.com

Mike Griggs pictured next to an Axial Compres-sor Rotor.

tating equipment. He mentions that he can work with anything from blowers and fans to pumps and compressors, but lately he has been concentrating a lot more on com-pressors and troubleshooting issues with this specific equipment. On a typical day he is responsible for developing and re-viewing end user and client specifications.

“Instead of big projects, we tend to work on a lot of smaller, more frequent projects. The trick to being a Rotating Equipment Engineer is being able to adapt to a vari-ety of standards; each client is unique and has their own requirements,” he explains. Mike’s role also involves package devel-


EPC Interview

ufacturers List), Burns & McDonnell also has an internal AML that he can use in the event the client does not have one. Howev-er, the majority of the time he’s guided on where to go for a quote or an order. Mike also stresses how AMLs are fluid, mean-ing that OEMs and pump manufacturers can have good years and bad years. “Just because a pump manufacturer is perhaps a poor performer on one of our orders in 2017, that doesn’t mean that that’s neces-sarily going to be the case in 2018. The point is that you can’t get mad if something goes wrong because there wouldn’t be anywhere to go,” explains Mike.

Importance of mentoring One aspect of Mike’s job that we were

really eager to discuss is his role as a men-tor to younger engineers. As a company, Burns & McDonnell makes it a priority to hire young engineers, but also to pair those younger engineers with more experienced personnel. Mike has been with the same mentee for the past three years, and in ad-dition to sitting near each other in the of-fice space, his mentee will shadow him in meetings and vice versa, until they slowly gain more confidence and responsibility to go it alone. “Any young engineer has the technical ability. They’re all very bright, but I’m more interested in how they inter-act with people and how they carry them-selves in a meeting. That’s what I like to focus on,” says Mike. He continues on to express his surprise at how quickly young graduates can pick up and retain new in-formation. Mike often doesn’t have to ex-plain anything in great detail as once his

Arcos produces a comprehensive line of premium bare wire, covered and tubular stainless steel alloy welding electrodes. Whatever your demanding application – from nuclear or military construction to power generation or petrochemical plants, pipelines to car exhaust systems, shipbuilding to paper production, and so many others – Arcos has the right stainless steel electrode to meet your exacting requirements.

These outstanding, made-in-America Arcos electrodes are available in a broad range of compositions consisting of austenitic, duplex and superduplex, martensitic and ferritic grades and are manufactured to your specific needs. They include:

• Covered electrodes in -15, -16 and -17 coating options.• Solid wires for use in GTAW, GMAW and submerged arc processes.

• Flux cored wires for flat and horizontal or out-of-position

work, with or without shielding gas.• Metal cored wires for use in GTAW, GMAW and submerged arc processes.

And, of course, all Arcos electrodes are backed by our experienced team of technical specialists and customer service professionals.

For more information on the entire spectrum of Arcos stainless steel electrode products, contact us at 1-800-233-8460 or visit our website at www.arcos.us.

Supplying the World with Stainless for over 90 Years…

Arcos Stainless Steel Electrodes

2324 Arcos Stainless Ad SSW_F.indd 1 8/3/17 7:47 AM

Mike Griggs, Senior Mechanical Engineer - Rotating Equipment, Burns & McDonnell.

Mike Griggs pictured with Sarah Powers, one of his mentees.

mentee has the enthusiasm to learn, they can grasp the discipline with great speed. “Once they decide that pumps or compres-sors are for them it’s a very easy job for me, because it’s a lot easier to train someone that wants to be there and is excited about what they’re learning,” he says.

In addition, not only do these young en-gineers bring a new enthusiasm into the business, but they bring a different set of skills that Mike fully acknowledges and ap-preciates. Technology is constantly changing and Mike is of the belief that younger engi-neers’ skillsets are more adaptable to today’s business environment. While that old school knowledge may still be a significant factor in today’s engineering world, so too is the abil-ity to adapt to new programs and software. “It’s almost like a symbiotic relationship; they teach me about new technology and I can teach them what I have learned through years of experience,” says Mike.

Looking forward, while Mike is quite content in his current position, he does hope in the future that there will be a group dedicated specifically to rotating equipment in Houston. Additionally, he thinks that pump manufacturing has had a tough time due to the oil crash, and in turn there have been a lot of mergers and acquisitions. Yet, despite that upset, Mike is optimistic for what lays in store in the future. “I think most of the ugliness we’ve seen in the last few years is gone. I think it’s hard to say if I see growth or not, but I’m optimistic. It’s just an unpredictable environment right now. However, my out-look is better for the oil and gas industry than it was even a year ago,” he says.

Mr. Bob Countryman, Vice-President, PA. Inc., was one of several American exhibitors at the event.

The exhibition floor was filled with a bustling crowd.

Out & about The tenth jubilee edition of the

Stainless Steel World Conference & Exhibition was held from Novem-ber 28th to 30th, 2017, in Masstricht, the Netherlands. With a record number of attendees, a vibrant mix of familiar friends and new faces celebrated two decades of success-fully bringing together the global CRA community.

Conference highlights included the interactive sessions on duplex and a lively workshop of 3D printing & powder metallurgy.

A big thank you goes out to the conference’s sponsors: ThyssenKrupp Ac-ciai Speciali Terni S.p.A., Aperam, Chandan Steel Limited, Industeel, Kobel-co Kobe Steel Group, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Sandvik Materials Technology, and Stalatube; as well as its supporters: BSSA, IMOA, ISSF, MTI, TWI, and the Nickel Institute.


Tech Talk

The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the main welding de-fects that frequently exist in piping and equipment and how to detect these defects without destroying the welds using nondestructive testing (NDT) methods. Then, the sensitization of stainless steel weld, characterization, pro-cessing, and structure properties of Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) as well as weld metal will be discussed in detail.

Furthermore, this article will illustrate the treatment of the weld decay by re-covery of passivation film after welding which will be followed by prevention of intergranular corrosion or weld decay of stainless steel using surface me-chanical attrition treatment. All of these will be described with help of char-acterization techniques XRD, SEM, TEM, and EPMA.

By Fandem QA* Aramco Qatif, Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia

Deterioration of stainless steel corrosion resistance due to weldingPart two of two

several types of these such as Penetrant Testing, Radiographic Testing (RT), Ul-trasonic Testing (UT), Magnetic Testing (MT), and of course Visual Testing (VT). There are also advanced NDT techniques used for welding critical services such as Time of Flight Diffraction Ultrasonic (TOFD). Some of these methods will be discussed briefly in this article. Penetrant Testing is simple and a low cost technique used to detect open to surface defects such as crack by using three different spray-ers i.e. penetrant, developer, and cleaner sprayers. The applying procedure of this method is by cleaning the surface and ap-plies the penetrant which is in a red col-or, and then after five minutes the area is cleaned off with use of the cleaner fol-lowed by applying the developer which is white in color to bleed out the penetrant and make a color contrast.

Recap from part 1Welding is an important technique of

joining metals homogenously in industries due to its effectiveness with low overall cost. However, presence of welding imper-fections is a challenge, which may form due to poor workmanship such as cracks, porosity, lack of fusion, incomplete pen-etration, and weld decay in stainless steel because of material properties issues. Fur-thermore, stainless steel material is one of the best choices in industries because of its high resistance to corrosion, however the issue with stainless steel material is the sensitization or weld decay after welding fabrication particularly in HAZ (1-3).

NDT techniques are used in order to check the soundness of the weld for the equipment without damaging or destroy-ing it. Many of the manufacturers or fabri-cators are using NDT methods. There are

Dover Tubular Alloys, Inc.

STAINLESS TUBULAR PRODUCTS

Passivation treatment of stainless steel after welding

As mentioned previously the CGHAZ of stainless steel got affected after welding and the solution to recover the protection film is by performing passivation process. Passiva-tion is the removal of impurities or iron from the surface and can be achieved by electrop-olishing, electrochemical cleaning, or chem-ical passivation (12). Electrochemical cleaning

Figure 8: (a) Precipitates in CGHAZ SEM (X 2000), (b) Analysis location point for EPMA (X 2000), (c) EPMA spectra (11).

Figure 9: (a) (SEM) surface of base metal before polishing. (b) Surface of weld before polishing (12).

approach will be discussed in the report on 316L weld material. The surface was first polished with 1000 grit abrasive paper in Al2O3 (0.5 um) solution Figure 8.

Then it has been cleaned chemically with 2% citric acid solution and 5% ammonia at 80°C. After that, the passivation was per-formed at temperature of 60°C with 6% HNO3 solution that has CuSO4.5H2O at 2%.

The analysis of the surface was performed before and after polishing as well as after passivation process. Figure 9 shows the SEM surfaces of base metal A and weld metal B, presence of cracks, grain boundaries, and im-purities are clear in both. On the other hand, the polished surfaces were characterized by smooth and uniform structure and the cracks as well as impurities were removed as shown in Figure 10.

After passivation SEM the base and weld metal were analyzed which presents an ir-regular distribution of indentations with a maximum diameter 5 um in the base metal as shown in Figure 11.

Moreover, the quantitative analysis of the base metal has been performed by EDXS be-fore and after passivation process as shown in Figure 12a and 12b. From this figure it is very clear that chromium carbide percentage

Stainless steel material is one of the best choices in industries because of its high resistance to corrosion, however the issue with stainless steel material is the sensitization or weld decay after welding fabrication particularly in

the Heat Affected Zone."


Tech Talk

dropped after passivation, which enhances formation of the passiv-ation film (12).

Prevention of SS corrosion using surface mechanical attrition treatment

The weld decay or the corrosion of stainless steel material after getting exposed to high temperature such as the welding process can be prevent-ed by Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment (SMAT) technique (10) in order to induce grain refinement as well as formation of twins.

S T A I N L E S S S T E E L

CRAFTSMANSHIP IN STAINLESS STEEL & SPECIAL-ALLOYS SINCE 1989

Request for a quote and receive an answer within 60 minutes!

www.pmstainlesssteel.com

PIPES - FITTINGS - FLANGES - BSP/NPT - VALVES

We opt for Quality What do you choose?

Figure 10: (SEM) the surface after polishing (12).

Figure 11: (a) (SEM) surface of base metal after passivation, (b) surface of weld after passivation (12).

Figure 13: (a) Optical photos of untreated HAZ, (b) SMATed HAZ after electroetching (10).

Figure 14: Dark field TEM of the top surface SMATed HAZ.

Figure 12a: (EDXS) Quantitative linear analysis before passivation (12).

Figure 12b: (EDXS) Quantitative linear analysis after passivation (12).

References1. Hayes B (1996) Classic brittle failures in large welded structures. Engineering Failure Analysis 3: 115-127.

2. Zerbst U, Ainsworth RA, Beier HT, Pisarski H, Zhang ZL, et al. (2014) Review on fracture and crack propagation in weldments-A fracture mechanics perspective. Engi-neering fracture mechanics 132: 200-276.

3. http://www.twi-global.com/technical-knowledge

4. API Standard (2004) Welding Inspection and Metallurgy API 577. American Petrole-um Institute Washington.

5. ASME Standard (2007) Nondestructive Examination ASME V. The American Society of Mechanical Engineering. New York.

6. http://met-tech.com/crane-weldment-failure.htm

7. ISO 5817 (2003) Arc welded joints in steel-Guidance on quality levels for imperfec-tions. Geneva: International Organization for Standardization.

8. Harrison JD (1972) Basis for a Proposed Acceptance-standard for Weld defects, Part. 1: Porosity. Metal Constr Br Weld J 4: 99-107.

9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel

10. Laleh M, Kargar F, Rouhaghdam AS (2012) Prevention of weld-decay in austenitic stainless steel by using surface mechanical attrition treatment. International Nano Letters 2: 37.

11. Yajiang LI, Yonglan Z, Bin S, Juan W (2002) Tem observation and fracture mor-phology in the cghaz of a new 0cr18mo2ti ferritic stainless steel. Bulletin of Materials Science 25: 361-366.

12. Gojić M, Marijan D, TuDja M, Kožuh S (2008) Passivation of welded AISI 316L stainless steel Pasivacija varjenega nerjavnega jekla AISI 316L. Original Scientific Papers-Izvirni znanstveni članki Passivation of welded AISI 316L stainless steel 55: 408-419.

*Corresponding author: Fandem QA, Aramco Qatif, Eastern Region, Saudi Arabia, Tel: 966506859895; E-mail: [email protected]

Citation: Fandem QA (2017) Deteriora-tion of Stainless Steel Corrosion Resist-ance Due to Welding. J Material Sci Eng 6: 329. doi: 10.4172/2169-0022.1000329

Copyright: © 2017 Fandem QA. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attri-bution License, which permits unrestrict-ed use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Miss part one?

If you haven’t read part one of this technical article, it was published in the December 2017 issue of Stainless Steel World Americas on pages 8 & 9.

Figure 15: (a and b) SEM photos for untreated surface while, (c and d) for SAMTed surfaces (10).

SMATed ones are not. The single twins and their intersections can be seen with about 300 um thick below the surface. Moreover, TEM with magnification of 100 nm taken for the SMATed top surfaces as shown in Figure 14, which characterized by ultrafine equiaxed grains with ran-dom crystallographic orientation and as can be seen the average grain size is about 10 nm.

Moreover, SEM micrographs were also taken for the samples be-fore and after SMAT as shown in Figure 15 and it is clearly observed the deep groove along the bound-aries due to weld decay or the sen-sitization as Figure 15a and 15b. On the other hand, after treatment the deep grooves in the boundar-ies become shallow and there is no sign for intergranular corrosion or sensitization because of formation high density twins as well as grain refinement. Thus, the SMAT im-prove the stainless steel material to overcome the sensitization after welding by about 50 times than the untreated one (10).

Conclusions It has been observed that the

stainless steel material is corrod-ed (weld decay) after welding due to sensitization or Cr depletion in the grain boundaries in form of chromium carbide. Thus, to en-hance the recovery of the protec-tion film, passivation treatment is used to clean the impurities or iron from the surface and hence the iron is reduced with recovery of Cr% atomic mass. Furthermore, the prevention technique with use of Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment (SMAT) can be utilized before welding to enhance the sen-sitization for about 50 times. Also, it has been explained for the im-portance of the characterization techniques in failure investigation over the NDT methods with the example of stainless steel welding.

Stainless steel 304 material has been used in this experiment with use of GTAW welding process. The samples were annealed at 1070°C for one hour and then quenched in water. The inducement of grain was refinement, the samples were put under vacuum at room tem-perature for 30 minutes with a vi-brating frequency 20 kHz. Optical micrograph of electroetching in 10% oxalic acid solution samples is shown in Figure 13.

Grooved grain of the untreat-ed sample are very clear, while the


Stainless steel manufacturers are often handicapped by the fact that they typically sell products to an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and not to the end-user. This limits access to critical information, which helps determine the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The equipment manufacturer has generally been more interest-ed in first cost than TCO.

By Robert Mcilvaine, President, The Mcilvaine Company

Potential for more knowledgeThe result has been a smaller market

for stainless steel than would have been created had the end-user been better in-formed. The stainless steel industry has partially overcome this handicap with extensive research and publication of papers dealing with specific end-use ap-plications. Nevertheless, there is a much bigger potential if total knowledge about the TCO for each application was available and utilized.

In fact, there is a sea change underway which promises to provide this knowledge and increase the potential use of stainless (1). This sea change is a direct result of the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW), which will empower the Industrial Inter-net of things (IIoT). Valves in combined cycle gas turbine plants subject to f low accelerated corrosion or scrubbers in coal fired boilers subject to crevice corrosion

caused by failure to bleed enough chlo-rides from the recirculating systems will all be remotely monitored, subjected to data analytics and will generate action-able data relative to solutions.

Sharing informationCorporate experts increasingly will be

making stainless steel decisions for all their plants. BASF, ArcelorMittal, and Duke En-ergy are all examples of stainless users who are embracing IIoT. The potential for stain-less suppliers will be further improved by the adoption of IIoW to empower IIoT. Data analytics and subject matter experts need to be interconnected in an organized man-ner to not only solve problems with existing solutions but to create new ones. This inter-connection of knowledge and people is the essence of IIoW.

Decision systems will need to be creat-ed for every unique process in every indus-

Potential for the Industrial Internet of Wisdom to boost stainless steel sales and margins

try using stainless. These systems provide the four knowledge needs: Alerts, An-swers, Analysis, and Advancement. Those Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) using and contributing to the systems will become Subject Matter Ultra-Experts (SMUEs). Those stainless steel suppliers who are de-veloping better products and who have the SMUEs will maximize the potential from the sea change.

Applying IIoWThe application of IIoW is presently fo-

cused on what is called the combust, flow, and treat (CFT) market. This includes all the vessels, piping, and components involved

P.A. Inc. is leading the way with solutions for specialty alloy piping requirements.

6626 Gulf Freeway, Houston – Texas 77087 | USAPhone: (800) 460-7473 | +1 713-570-4900 | Fax: +1 713-570-4950Email: [email protected] | www.PAInc.com

Alloy 20

Alloy 200

Alloy 400

Alloy 600, 601, 625

Alloy 800H/HT, 803, 825

Alloy C-276

Stainless 304H

2205 Duplex

P I P E , F I T T I N G S A N D F L A N G E S

P.A. Inc. is leading the way

Time for a change to P.A. Inc.

Late Deliveries?

Specification non-conformance issues?

Material not protectedfor shipment?

Inaccurate documentation?

Backorders?

Market Report

New approaches to succeed in the IIoT world

Subject Old approach New approach

Market research Top down periodic general estimates

Bottoms up forecasts with detailed continuously updated analyses

Sales initiation Uncoordinated sales leads Identification and pursuit of large prospects

Sales persuasion Sales experts Application experts

Selection criteria Price and service Total cost of ownership (TCO) and service

Location of specifiers Individual plants Corporate staff with TCO data

Acceptance of new and better products

Slow Rapid

Collaboration with other suppliers

Haphazard Important to success

Decision process Not systematic Decision systems

Subject matter experts (SMEs)

Lots of SMEs but not well utilized

Subject Matter Ultra Experts (SMUEs) contributing to, and improving, decision systems

Remote monitoring Unusual Prevalent

Data analytics Unusual Prevalent

TCO analyses Expensive and inadequate Voluminous and continuous

Third party Operation Minor Major

Component Supplier Role Initial sale, spare parts, service on demand

Cloud based continuous involve-ment

Figure 1: A comparison and contrast of the old and new approaches of how to succeed in the IIoT World.

Data analytics and subject mat-ter experts need to be interconnect-ed in an organized manner to not only solve problems with existing solutions but to create new ones. This interconnection of knowledge and people is the essence of IIoW.”

- Robert Mcilvaine


with liquids, gases, and free flowing solids. These components generate a multibil-lion-dollar stainless opportunity in power refining, oil & gas, chemicals, metal produc-tion, food, mining, water, wastewater, de-salination, and many other industries.

This sea change will influence the busi-ness strategy and approaches to the market for stainless suppliers. The old approaches will soon be replaced by new ones.

Major changes to the stainless sup-plier business strategy and selection, use, and training of personnel will be necessary to maximize this opportunity. However, the rewards will be not only increased sales, but also increased mar-gins for those suppliers with products, which create a lower TCO.

Market Report

Reference

(1) IIoT & Remote O&M published by the Mcilvaine Company

Terminology you should know!

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) – A financial estimate meant to assist buyers and owners in determining the direct and indirect costs of product or system.

Subject Matter Expert (SME) – A professional person who is an authority in a particular area or topic.

Subject Matter Ultra-Expert (SMUE) – A Subject Matter Expert who makes use of the IIoW and IIoT to glean as much information as possible.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – A network of physical devices, vehicles, industrial equipment, or residential appli-ances embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actua-tors, and network connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data.

Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIoW) – A network of intercon-nected data analytics and Subject Matter Experts, which work together in an organized manner to solve problems. IIoW em-powers the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Stainless Steel Weld Finishing System

®

TIGBRUSH.COMAustralian Office:+61 2 4735 7700United States Office:+1 630 851 2126

SAFEST FLUIDS IN THE INDUSTRY

THE ALTERNATIVETO PICKLING PASTE

No Pickling Paste Low Toxicity Chemicals One Step Cleaning & Passivation Easy, Fast Operation Single Phase Power Portable & Economical

The World’s Premium Stainless Steel Weld Cleaning System

Dear Readers, Welcome to Stainless Steel World Americas’ first issue of 2018! I’m going to keep the editorial message short and sweet this time around in order to bring you all the latest information about the upcoming 2018 Man-aging Aging Plants/Stainless Steel World Americas Conference & Exhibition. But I hope you enjoyed reading this issue! As always we have it jam-packed with the latest news and information about corro-sion resistant alloys from interviews with end-users to technical articles to market reports, and of course all the current conference details. As always, I do want to hear what you think. If you have an idea for an article or would like to participate in an end-user interview, please let me know! I can be reached at [email protected].

Issue 1, February 2018

Stainless Steel World Americas is the leading

publication for corrosion resistant alloy users,

suppliers and fabricators in North, Central, and

South America.

www.ssw-americas.com

Publishing DirectorAndre Davanzo

[email protected]

EditorCandace Allison (Canada/USA)

[email protected]

Editorial Team (print & online)Sarah Bradley (Canada/USA)

[email protected]

Kelly McLaughlin (Canada/USA)

[email protected]

Jody Hewitt (Canada/USA)

[email protected]

John Butterfield (The Netherlands)

[email protected]

Joanne McIntyre (The Netherlands)

[email protected]

Sales DirectorAndre Davanzo

[email protected]

Advertising Team (print & online)Josh Gillen

[email protected]

Jorge Garces

[email protected]

Mathijs Gordon

[email protected]

Subscriptions (print & online)Stephanie Matas

[email protected]

Stainless Steel World Americas is published six

times per year. A renewal reminder will be sent

towards the end of your subscription period.

ISSN 2211-260X

Publishing House & Mailing Address KCI Publishing Corporation

36 King Street East, Suite 701

Toronto, ON, Canada

[email protected]

Tel: +1 416 361 7030

Fax: +1 416 361 6191

HST B.N 829876267RT

Netherlands OfficeKCI Publishing B.V.

Jacob Damsingel 17

NL-7201 AN Zutphen

The Netherlands

[email protected]

Tel: +31 575 585 270

Fax: +31 575 585 099

German OfficeKCI GmbH

Tiergartenstr. 64

D - 47533 Kleve, Germany

[email protected]

Tel: +49 2821 711 450

Fax: +49 2821 711 45 69

China OfficeKCI Shanghai

Room 603, 6F

#400 Zhejiang Mid. Road

Postcode 200001

Shanghai, China

[email protected]

Tel: +86-21-6351 9609

Fax: +86-21-6351 9607

www.kci-world.com

The publisher and authors state that this jour-

nal has been compiled meticulously and to the

best of their knowledge, however, the publisher

and authors can in no way guarantee the accura-

cy or completeness of the information. The pub-

lisher and authors therefore do not accept any

liability for any damage resulting from actions or

decisions based on the information in question.

Users of this magazine are strongly advised not

to use this information solely, but to rely on their

professional knowledge and experience, and to

check the information to be used. KCI Publishing

cannot guarantee the accuracy of information

provided by participating companies and

authorities. The publisher reserves the right to

combine, delete and change sections.

The publisher reserves the right to edit and

re-use (parts of) the articles and to distribute the

information by any means.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication

may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system

or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, photocopying, record-

ing or otherwise, without the written permission

of the publisher.

Stainless Steel World Americas is a trade-

mark of Technical Business Publications II B.V.

– registered under number 08118617 and holding

company of the KCI group of companies. TBP

II BV, Thijs Elshof (CEO), PO Box 67, 6680 AB

Lingewaard, the Netherlands.

© 2018 Technical Business Publications II B.V.

Final Words

2018 Managing Aging Plants/Stainless Steel World Americas Conference & Exhibition

November 13th & 14th, 2018Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria Hotel, Houston, Texas

Preparations are well underway for the upcoming 2018 Managing Aging Plants/Stainless Steel World Americas Conference and Exhibition, which will be held from November 13th to 14th at the Royal Son-esta Houston Galleria Hotel in Houston, Texas, USA. The aim of this dynamic event is to create a com-munity dedicated to operating aging infrastructure safely & efficiently through the use of materials, in-spection methods, and best practices.

Conference The conference program will be developed by the

Chairman, Mr. Kenneth Kirkham, along with the Vice-Chairman, Mr. Cody Kell, and an esteemed Steer-ing Committee. Presentations will focus on relevant topics such as:

• Avoiding failures• Codes, standards, and regulations• Corrosion• Inspection procedures• Non destructive testing (NDT)• Reliability• Remediation of infrastructure• Risk-based inspection (RBI)• Safety• Sustainability• The use of duplex, exotic alloys, etc.• Welding

ParticipateThe Chairman and Steering Committee are now

accepting abstracts for PowerPoint presentations.

SSWAM -February 2018 | www.ssw-americas.com 16

Meet the 2018 Steering Committee

Chairman: Kenneth Kirkham, Group Head & Principal Leader, E2G| The Equity Engineering Group, Inc.

Vice-Chairman: Cody Kell, Materials Engineering Specialist, 3M

Henk Akkermans, Professor, Tilburg University; Director, World Class MaintenanceJason Bitting, Advisor–Mechanical Tech Service, Albemarle CorporationEileen Chant, Engineering Manager, Becht EngineeringMel Esmacher, Consulting Engineer, Metallurgical Services Lab, SuezBrian Fitzgerald, Subject Matter Expert, Stress Engi-neering Services, Inc.Jader Furtado, International Expert R&D-Physical Metallurgy, Air Liquide R&DRoy Grichuk, Technical Fellow, Fluor CorporationByron Keelin, Operations Director, Materials Technol-ogy InstituteDamian Kotecki, Consultant, Damian Kotecki Weld-ing Consultants, Inc. Michael Long, Executive Director, The Vibration Institute (VI)David McFarland, Principal Operations Readiness Maintenance & Integrity Engineer, Shell Global Solutions Ed Naylor, Senior Materials Engineering Associate, AkzoNobel Projects & EngineeringJose Ramirez, Materials & Welding Lead Specialist High Temperature Materials and Engineering Center, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.Kirk Richardson, Marketing Director, Materials Technology InstituteFred Schweighardt, National Projects Leader, Air-gas, an Air Liquide CompanyMichael Stevens, Principal Scientist, Ashland LLCPaul Whitcraft, Executive Director, Materials Tech-nology Institute (MTI)Scott Whitlow, Materials Engineer Technology Leader, Veolia North AmericaMichael Yee, CEO, RTConsultsChuck Young, Business Development Manager, Tricor MetalsQiang Zeng, Principal Engineer/Materials Expert, China Merchants Offshore Technology Research Center

Candace Allison

Editor, Stainless Steel World Americas

You can submit your 300-500-word abstract to Candace Allison at [email protected] and be sure to include your full name, title, company, and contact details. For more informa-tion about submitting an abstract or becoming involved in the conference please see the Call for Presentations brochure inserted in this issue of the journal.

ExhibitionRunning alongside the conference is the exhibi-

tion, which will showcase the latest products and solutions for the processing, manufacturing, ma-chinery, repair, and maintenance sectors.

There will be ample opportunities to meet and network with professionals specializing in pro-curement, production, maintenance, operations, and plant management. The exhibition will bring together end-users, buyers and specifiers from a variety of industries including oil & gas, chemical & petrochemical, power generation, etc.

Proudly sponsored by: Media Sponsor: Proudly supported by: Powered by:

International Tube and Pipe Trade Fair

Internationale Rohr-Fachmesse

International Wire and Cable Trade Fair

Internationale Fachmesse Draht und Kabel

Messe Düsseldorf GmbHP.O. Box 10 10 06 _ 40001 Düsseldorf _ Germany

Tel. +49 (0)2 11/45 60-01 _ Fax +49 (0)2 11/45 60-6 68

www.messe-duesseldorf.de

join the best: 16 – 20 April 2018Düsseldorf, Germany I www.wire.de I www.tube.de

wirTub1802_Ddorf_130x202_INT.indd 1 05.10.17 12:40

Wolseley Industrial acquires Duhig Stainless, Inc.€¦ · Stainless Steel World Americas is the leading publication for corrosion resistant alloy users, suppliers, and fabricators

Documents