EDITOR’S LETTER
H
ow is the Coronavirus pandemic affecting corrosion control?
I have not found any precise data on this subject. However, we can hypothesise that the corrosion prevention and mitigation sector has also suffered a slowdown
due to the repeated lockdowns, the closure of construction sites, and the discontinuity of industrial operations. It is also easy to assume that the intensity of such an impact will depend on the duration of this pandemic, also considering that it is occurring with different manners and times in different countries. Corrosion control is known to be particularly important for infrastructure and production assets, which are one of the cornerstones of the economic development of countries. Be they in steel or concrete, they require inspection and maintenance interventions that guarantee their functionality over time, in order to avoid the occurrence of problems that undermine their durability and call for extraordinary maintenance operations. Maintenance must therefore become a priority for all public and private asset owners. This is why in recent times and, even more so, in this historical moment, innovation in the protective coatings sector has been developing especially in two directions: the continuous monitoring of the durability of infrastructure and production assets, aimed at switching from planned to predictive maintenance programmes, and the offer of
corrosion prevention and mitigation products that are increasingly high-performance and easy-to-apply. Digital technologies are of great help to the maintenance sector. For example, the use of artificial intelligence, for now limited to pilot projects (see p. 08 of this magazine), will guarantee huge savings by providing visual diagnostics of the state of assets and by identifying any future maintenance needs and risk evolution possibilities. The use of drones (or RPAS, remotely piloted aircraft systems) for critical operations in professional settings is another precise, highly technological, economical, and low-risk solution for monitoring critical and difficult-to-access areas (p. 32). This issue of ipcm®_Protective Coatings, which concludes our editorial activity for this year, offers numerous insights on the above-mentioned topics, including products capable of effectively mitigating corrosion on hard-to-reach metal surfaces, such as bridge tension cables and post-tensioning solutions; an in-depth case study on how closer monitoring would have prevented a bridge in the UK from closing, thus cutting a vital highway link; and another in-depth case study on the effective maintenance operation performed on a biomass power plant with the pandemic in full swing, thanks to the use of thermal spray coatings. This and much more will keep you company during the Christmas break, with the hope that 2021 bring a new upheaval – this time a positive one – in our lives.
Alessia Venturi Editor-in-chief
ipcm® Protective Coatings - 2020 DECEMBER - N.36
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