Corrosion Awareness Day, April 24th, 2021, Discover How Critical the War on Corrosion is
Corrosion costs lives. Did you know that corrosion also costs us an astounding US $2.5 trillion dollars globally (3 to 4% of GDP of industrialized countries)?
Corrosion Awareness Day highlights the estimated US$2.5 trillion annual cost of corrosion worldwide and highlights that many decision-makers in industry and government do not fully understand the consequences of corrosion and how critical it is to control it [1].
There is good news however, we can reduce that cost by $875 billion annually through appropriate application of existing corrosion abatement technologies [2]. This is what Apellix lives for. We at Apellix strongly believe we have a great tool to help with the “War on Corrosion” and we are working to develop easy and read access to our systems for use by corrosion professionals and the industry in general. Apellix promotes unified common standards, continuing education and training, and the advancement of technology in the world of corrosion.
“At Apellix we’re able to clean a surface with a tethered drone, paint that surface or coat it, and then measure the thickness of the coating and the steel over time thus bring to market a powerful new technology for corrosion control and mitigation.”
Corrosion caused this bridge collapse in 2007 killing 13 and injuring 145
Corrosion caused this bridge collapse in 2007 killing 13 and injuring 145 [3].
While it may be impossible to get an exact number for the cost of corrosion, in part because many industries do not report the extent of their corrosion problems, it is important to realize the numbers do not include the lost profits and lost production uptime that result from corrosion issues. What would the 13 people killed in the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse have done with their lives? How might they have changed the world had they not tragically been at the wrong place at the wrong time? How might they have made the world a better place?
While the Minneapolis bridge collapse is spectacular evidence of the problem it is not an isolated example. About 46,000 U.S. bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge and the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge in Washington D.C., are structurally deficient, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association [4]. While time marches on weather, rust and sheer age attack the worlds bridges and infrastructure.
The corroded Gusset that failed due to corrosion leading to the bridge collapse [5]
sociation of Corrosion Engineers (NACE – now AMPP after merging this year with the Society for Steel and Protective Coatings, SSPC) [5]
