5th PSK Conference, Molo, Poland, 2011
5th Annual Conference of the Polish Corrosion Society “Modern Anticorrosive Technologies"
"MOLO 2011” Smardzewice, Poland, 11‐13 April 2011 · EFC Event No. 344
The plenary lecture, “Trends in the Development of Polymers” was delivered by the Polish Corrosion Society’s president Dr Agnieszka Królikowska of the Road and Bridge Research Institute which presented a broad spectrum of possibilities for the use of new and modified polymers. The second lecture in the plenary session delivered by Alicja Tokarczyk of TUiR Allianz Poland was on insuring anticorrosion structures with a focus on insuring against civil liability and the relevant insurance contracts and guarantees available. Dr. Michał Wójtowicz of the Institute of Building Techniques discussed the consistency in standards of new products introduced into the marketplace.
On the first day of the conference the traditional PSK awards ceremony took place whereby the “Notable Corrosionist Award” was presented to Dr. Małgorzata Zubielewicz and certificates were given to all the sponsors.
The first session of the conference was dedicated to the cost of anticorrosion works and the economic effects of corrosion. The papers covered topics such as “The Methods and Criteria of the Estimation of Corrosion Costs”, “The Economic Effects of Anticorrosive Protection of Stadium Structures”, “The Costs of Paint Coatings and Metal-sprayed Coatings”. All the papers presented stimulated great interest and discussion due to the extremely high economic impact of corrosion’s effects despite the availability of many modern products for long-term anticorrosive protection. This is due to factors such as: inaccurate anticorrosive programs (or no existing programs at all), a lack of on-site coordination, a lack of qualified supervision and the legal tendering process which has only one criteria for choosing the winning bidder: the lowest price.
Other sessions included papers on the protection of concrete and reinforced concrete with one notable paper by Leonard Runkiewicz and Michał Wójtowicz (ITB) concluding that corrosion causes 25- 40% of building catastrophes. Teresa Możaryn (ITB) discussed the PN-EN 1504 standard in her paper entitled: “Products and systems for protection and refurbishment of concrete structures – definitions, requirements, quality control and conformity” pertaining to the planning and repair of concrete and reinforced concrete. Leszek Lipiec of Wacker Chemia Poland reported on the wide range of products available for the hydrophobization of concrete. Adam Bochenek and Paweł Franczak (ANTICOR Wieliczka) presented the technology for repair of segmented roadways by using urethane modified asphalt and Andrzej Królikowski of the Warsaw Technical University discussed the factors that lead to the diminishment and even the elimination of the effectiveness of penetrating corrosion inhibitors which can contribute to the further speeding up of the corrosion process.
There was also a session on anticorrosion protection by metal coatings with topics including the structure of zinc coatings for select types of reinforcement steels, the advantages of metal sprayed protection by zinc and aluminium zinc alloys, the practical use of corrosion inhibitor “Ikorol”, and the possibilities and conditions for processing hot-dip galvanized steel by grit sweeping.
The papers in the electrochemical corrosion protection session covered topics such as the Personnel Certification Programme for Cathodic Protection and Practices in Cathodic Protection and Measurements of Pipelines.
Prizes were awarded by PSK for the best thesis in the field of anticorrosion protection. This year’s prizes went to graduates of the Chemistry Department of Warsaw Technical University: Agata Biesaga for her paper: “Zinc layers created by electrochemical method” and Dorota Wardzińska for “The influence of calcium nitrate (III) on corrosion of steel in solution simulating the corrosive environment of carbonized concrete”.
A competition also took place where the participants answered questions about the industry publication “Ochrona przed Korozją” and the winner was given a 12 month free subscription to the magazine. This year the prize winner was Katarzyna Palenta from Silesian Technical University.
As is customary at annual Polish Corrosion Society (PSK) conferences, a Round-Table discussion took place and participants decided upon the topics for next year’s conference. This secures society members’ involvement for the coming year. Topics at PSK’s 2012 conference will include: different surface preparation methods, anticorrosion protection of municipal structures, safety of anticorrosive works, protection in refineries, communication engineered structures and technical specifications in anticorrosive works.
Małgorzata Zubielewicz PSK spokeswoman
