CASE STUDY: Small company supported to develop corrosion resistant alloy
Wall Colmonoy Ltd. (WCL) is a manufacturing company of specialist and unique alloys providing challenging corrosion and wear solutions for demanding industrial sectors including steelmaking, power generation and the food industry.
The Steel and Metals Institute (SaMI) unique facility SINTEC stands for “simulation and integrity testing in extreme conditions” and enables process simulation and asset integrity testing of materials at very high temperatures in reactive gas environments including hydrogen, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.
The SINTEC facility was used to generate very highly corrosive environment test conditions to test and differentiate a new corrosion resistant alloy – Colmonoy® 686 – against the performance of existing materials.
Progression through higher testing intensity, together with expert analysis from SaMI staff, enabled an understanding of the new product’s performance.
The new product enables WCL customers to run their plants without major shutdown for up to 5 years (an increase from 2-3 years), which increases productivity and cost effectiveness.
It also allows the use of higher pressure gas turbines, which returns more energy from the burned waste and consequently reduces carbon emissions from the industrial process.
Accessing SaMI’s facility, capability and expertise allows SMEs such as WCL to have the possibility to conduct research that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
“SaMI’s expertise in the field of high intensity corrosion resistance has enabled the adoption of a range of testing criteria. Only working closely with SaMI and by simulating industry processes on the lab scale would this testing be possible. This has afforded us the benefit of understanding the product’s performance to a more detailed level. We are extremely thankful SaMI’s approach allows an SME like us to have the option to research this data.”
Dr. Chris Weirman, Technology Director, Wall Colmonoy Ltd
