VOLUME
23 | NUMBER 3
| THIRD QUARTER 2002
I N N O V
A T I O N S
Innovator Driving New Titanium Wheelchair Designs
By:
Kirk Richardson — Wah Chang
On a typical sun-baked weekend afternoon somewhere around
the hills, dales, or dusty plains of south-central Washington
state, it’s a safe bet that engineer Alan Ludovici is
out playing. Not one to sit still, he might be hang-gliding
or taking part in his true love, racing go-karts (karts).
Motor sports rev Ludovici’s engine. And he’s good
— good enough to win the track championship in his kart
class last year. Unfortunately, this season went upside-down
when he flipped during a midseason race. “I was out for
a couple of months rebuilding the kart and recovering from
a shoulder injury,” he says. Typical weekend warrior.
Like the rest of us, by the time Monday rolls around, it’s
back to the grind. Ludovici parks his Subaru Outback in the
employee lot at a Kennewick, Washington industrial complex.
That’s where the routine takes a sudden twist. You see,
before getting to work, Alan needs a few extra minutes to
put together his customized wheelchair.
“I’ve been in a wheelchair since June 1984,”
explains Ludovici. “I hit a wall while practicing for
a kart race in New Hampshire. I had a brake failure going
into a corner and spun backwards into the wall, exiting the
kart, and my body then also hit the wall.” He doesn’t
dwell on it.
Back to the future, Ludovici removes the TiLite™ frame
from the Outback and places it just outside the door (quite
a maneuver in itself). Lickety-split, he fits the rear wheels
on the frame and snaps them into place with the quick-release
pins that he designed. In minutes, he’s gliding through
the lobby on his way to the Engineering Department that he
heads for TiSport, a designer of everything from lightweight,
high strength bicycle frames to lacrosse sticks to, you guessed
it, custom-designed wheelchairs.
Like the chairs that TiSport designs for customers around
the world, it’s a perfect fit for company and innovator.
“The funny thing about it is that I wanted to do this
ten years ago,” says Ludovici (who has been with the
company since 1998). “It’s fun to see things come
together.” TiSport is equally happy to have a true innovator
at the helm of its Engineering Department, a guy who really
understands its customers.
A visit to the company’s website, www.Tisport.net,
reveals a range of products to meet customer needs, including
Youth, Sport, Power, Rigid and Folding Chairs. Ludovici prefers
the Rigid Chair. “A rigid chair will perform better,”
he says. With “anything that gets moving or folding,
you start getting flexion and things twisting and turning,
and you lose a lot of energy.” But the innovator keeps
an open mind, realizing that others have different requirements.
The web site sums it up well, stating that “TiSport®
TiLite™ wheelchairs are like prosthetics — built
exactly to the end-user’s unique dimensions. These attributes
help users remain independent longer, experience reduced body
stress, incur fewer posture-related problems and live with
fewer modifications.”
“Right now we’re developing five different model
chairs,” Ludovici says. “We generally work on three
to five new chair products in a year. Some are component designs.”
For example, “we’re working on a hub-operated wheel
lock,” he continues. “We’re approaching it
in a different manner, so that it’s easier to use. It’s
designed for an active person.” The innovator is quick
to add “and it’s going to be something that is patentable.”
“We don’t skimp on a few pennies here and there,”
says Ludovici. “We take the components as far as they
can be taken, and reduce the overall weight of the chair.
In the wheelchair industry itself, everybody kept targeting
frames. I’ve seen titanium chairs weigh 28 lbs. We look
at every component we make to reduce the overall weight of
the product. The overall efficiency comes along with that;
lighter wheels make a big difference... those kinds of things.”
(left) TiLite™ XC is a custom made chair fixed in place
to users specifications.
(right top) TiLite™ Evo takes 1980s technology to the
next evolution of design in this type of chair.
(right bottom) TiLite™ TT a twin tube cantilever design
chair. Using twin tubes, TiSport is able to have a minimal
frame design and reduce weight of the frame through the twin
tube structural shape.
“The chairs that we make average 18-20 lbs (lighter than
most aluminum models),” says Steve Meredith, TiSport’s
Vice President, and “titanium is a whole lot more durable.”
He says that TiSport’s chairs are fatigue tested. “Obviously,
if you’re in a wheelchair, you don’t want it to
break,” he says. To that end, the company takes quality
seriously, whether it’s making a wheelchair, a bike frame,
or anything else.
For Ludovici, it’s titanium over aluminum... no contest.
His reasons go beyond the metal’s lightweight and durability,
“titanium tends to act like a suspension,” he says.
“It literally just glides over the top of things better.”
He points out the titanium significantly dampens the vibration
caused by cracks, pebbles, and other “road hazards”.
Besides making your teeth rattle (irritating in itself), vibration
can cause serious pain.
TiSport’s alloy of choice is cold-worked, stress relieved
Ti-3Al-2.5V (Grade 9) seamless tubing, a product made by the
company’s long-time supplier, Wah Chang. The Ti-3-2.5
alloy was created in the 1970s to fill the aerospace industry’s
need for improved high-pressure hydraulic lines.
As it turned out, the same titanium used in commercial jets
proved to work well in golf shafts and bike frames. The jump
to wheelchair applications was natural. Beyond weight reduction,
strength, and vibration dampening, Ti-3-2.5 properties are
ideal for custom chairs. Good formability allows tube to be
bent, tapered, shaped into oval tube, and flattened into complex
shapes. Other important characteristics exhibited by the alloy
include excellent corrosion resistance (a feature particularly
helpful in areas where ocean breezes spread metal-devouring
salt water) and good weldability.
During a tour of TiSport’s facility, Meredith appeared
particularly proud of the company’s well-trained welding
crew and facility that includes a unique rotating stand. “When
you’re selling consumer products, it’s not good
enough to say the weld is strong,” he points out. “They
have to look good as well.” Soon he’s concluding
the plant overview, showing a final assembly department, responsible
for bringing a myriad of parts together, and QA, where each
chair is checked carefully before shipping.
Meredith is optimistic about the company’s future. As
far as line extensions, he says TiSport has manufactured titanium
medical rescue baskets for the Coast Guard and is looking
at similar products. “The thing about titanium is that
it’s durable,” he emphasizes, “and it saves
a heck of a lot of weight. And the baskets get banged around
quite a bit.” Another case of good, solid innovative
thinking.
Where would Ludovici and his peers at TiSport be without it?
“Me and a couple of the other people who work for us
are older chair users,” he says “We all have problems,
like I have a torn rotator cuff, but we’re still out
there wheeling around.
“I couldn’t do it in a heavy chair. I’d have
to get a power chair if I wasn’t riding in this chair.
It would change my whole life, that’s what it would do.
I’d need more help getting around. I’d be relying
on batteries to be charged.” Eventually, the conversation
circles back to his outside interests. “It would really
put a crimp in my style,” he laughs. Thanks to innovation,
it’s not something Ludovici really needs to worry about
as the busy engineer races toward another adventure-filled
weekend.
For more information contact Ti Sport at 800.545.2266 or visit
www.Tisport.net.
Wah Chang Receives CERN's Golden Hadron Award for LHC Project
Wah
Chang recently received CERN’s Golden Hadron Award for
its outstanding performance on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
project.
Mr. Lynn Davis, President of Wah Chang, represented the company
at the awards presentation. Mr. Davis said he was “honored
to represent the workers at the Albany, Oregon facility by
accepting this quality award.” Regarding quality, Mr.
Davis noted that “CERN has set the world standard for
high performance, high homogeneity niobium-titanium (NbTi)
alloys.”
The LHC is a superconducting machine that will be “the
frontier machine for particle physics research,” according
to Dr. Lyn Evans, Director of the LHC Project, a worldwide
collaboration (with funding supported by the US Department
of Energy). CERN is building the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland.
“The heart of the machine is the superconducting magnet
system that requires very high quality niobium-titanium alloy
and niobium (Nb) sheets,” says Dr. Evans. He adds that
Wah Chang is supplying these materials to the firms in the
US, France, Italy, Finland, Germany and Japan, who are all
making wire strands for the LHC magnets. ”The quality
of the material and the reliability of the supply has been
exemplary,” he says.
The NbTi superconducting cables will be used to construct
1232 arc dipole and up to 520 quadrupole magnets. Wah Chang
has been shipping both Nb sheet and NbTi billets for the LHC
Project since 1998.
Wah Chang President
Lynn Davis accepted the Golden Hadron Award from Dr. Lyn Evans,
Director of the LHC Project.
F I R S T H A N D
Engineering Solves Case of “Bad Vibes”
By:
Kirk Richardson — Wah Chang
Way
back in the winter of 1982, Outlook featured an article on
how the clever engineers at Wah Chang used the company’s
own Zircadyne® zirconium to solve a corrosion challenge
with one of the plant’s pollution control devices. The
new precipitator was designed to remove sub-micron particles
from corrosive gasses emitted from the company’s rotary
kilns.
Originally, a mild steel was used for the electrical grid
that captures the particulate. In many instances, steel might
be sufficient for a precipitator application; however, in
this aggressive environment, where sulfate ranges from 20-400
ppm and pH swings from 1-5, the metal didn’t stand a
chance.
According to Randy Scheel, a plant engineer at the time, replacing
the mild steel with zirconium solved the corrosion problem,
and everything worked well... for a while. Initially “we
were worried about the zirconium possibly sparking (in the
electrostatic environment), but that never turned out to be
an issue,” he says.
Instead, a new “gremlin” crept forward. The precipitator
became less and less efficient, requiring occasional repairs
due to mechanical problems. “Over time, we found that
there was vibration on the grids,” Scheel says. “The
vibration started cracking the zirconium welds because of
the way we constructed the metallic grid.”
Figure 1 shows the original grid design (with looped ends).
“The vibration of the loops off the end bar would cause
the welds to break and give us sections that weren’t
getting good current distribution, so every once in a while
we had to go back in and repair those,” according to
Scheel.
Figure 1. Original
Precipitator Grid.
“Over the years we worked on different designs, and we
finally discovered two things,” he says. ”One was
the vibration on the end where the loops stuck out and the
other was that the unsupported wire in the grid was vibrating
(cracking welds and breaking wire in the process).” Bad
vibes.
As Wah Chang reinforced in this case, solutions don’t
always have to be elegant. “The first thing we realized
was that we needed more supports,” he explains. “We
added the center supports, but we still had problems with
those loops on the end vibrating and breaking loose, so we
came up with this other grid about five years ago (see Figure
2). In that design, we had no loops left at all.”
Figure 2. Improved
Precipitator Grid.
In addition, rather than welding the wire to the grid, Scheel
says that engineers chose to weld a pin on the end of the
wire, which runs through loose-fit holes in the supports (see
Figure 3). This allows the wire to “free-flow in the
support” as Scheel puts it. “Now, we don’t
pick up vibration in welds,” he says.
Figure 3. Free-flow
pin support system.
Scheel is satisfied that the re-designs have eliminated the
last “gremlin” in the precipitator: vibration. He
sees a lesson for industry in the process. “We’ve
now been running this grid successfully about five years and
have gotten rid of the problem, which points out a common
factor for zirconium in things like heat exchangers where
you have long tube lengths,” he says. “We know you
have to add extra supports down the length of the tubes to
be able to minimize the vibration. It’s a critical parameter
in construction” — an element well worth considering
in future designs that incorporate zirconium.
As for the present, Wah Chang’s precipitator continues
to get the job done; a simple design solution, using an acid-tested
tough alloy, Zircadyne® zirconium.
To discuss your precipitator or other corrosion challenges,
contact Wah Chang’s Technical Services Group at 541.967.6977
or e-mail randy.scheel@wahchang.com.
ATI to Supply Wrought Product Forms for Inco Limited’s
Goro Mining Project
By:
Kirk Richardson — Wah Chang
Allegheny
Technologies Incorporated (ATI) was selected to supply all
wrought product forms made of the specialized Titanium Grade
28 to be used in Inco Limited’s Goro mining project pressure
acid leaching heat exchanger system. ATI’s Wah Chang
operation was selected to supply all Titanium Grade 28 tube,
tubesheet, plate, forgings, and other wrought products. Titanium
Grade 28 is a highly corrosion resistant, ruthenium-enhanced
titanium alloy. In addition, ATI’s Allegheny Ludlum operation
was selected to provide Titanium Grade 17 plate products to
the Goro project. Total revenue value to Allegheny Technologies
of this project is approximately US$20 million. Shipments
are scheduled to be primarily in the fourth quarter 2002.
“This project is an example of our unparalleled capability
to provide customer-focused specialty materials solutions
to a highly technical project in the international corrosion
market,” said Jim Murdy, Allegheny Technologies’
president and chief executive officer. “This Coordinated
Business Development success demonstrates how we can best
apply our diverse and unique specialty materials capabilities.
Our customer benefits from a single material source and consistent
technical and service support.” Coordinated Business
Development is an Allegheny Technologies strategic growth
initiative that provides the commercial framework to identify
and develop plans and tactics for market and product growth
across the company’s business segments and operating
companies. Allegheny Technologies’ International Sales
Office located in Australia provided instrumental customer
contact with the Goro project design team.
The US$1.4 billion Goro facility is being built in the ore-rich
French Overseas Territory of New Caledonia and is designed
to produce 55,000 metric tons of nickel and 5,000 metric tons
of cobalt annually. The hydrometallurgical plant will use
a process known as pressure acid leaching (PAL) to extract
the nickel and cobalt. PAL makes use of pressure and sulphuric
acid to extract nickel from laterite ores in an economically
feasible way. Erosion- and corrosion-resistant titanium alloys
are ideal for service in high pressure, high temperature processing
environments.
Wah Chang’s website can be found at www.wahchang.com.
The sales contact for this product, Carl Shawber, can be reached
in Albany, Oregon at 541.967.6968.
For more information on Coordinated Business Development for
CPI, including hydrometallurgy involving products across ATI,
please contact Andrea Van at 541.812.7054 or by email at andrea.van@wahchang.com.
Goro pilot plant.
Wah Chang Offers Laboratory and Technical Services
By:
Mike Abraham — Wah Chang
As many companies search for ways to lower operating costs,
the need for quality research, laboratory testing, and technical
expertise has not gone away. Outsourcing is a cost-effective
way to fill these gaps, and Wah Chang can be the single contact
for providing the dependable Laboratory and Consulting Services
that these companies demand. The combination of our Metallurgical,
Corrosion and Chemical Analysis Laboratories offers an extensive
array of testing capabilities that have been serving customers
for over 30 years. With a team of over 50 metallurgists, engineers,
chemists, and technicians, the Wah Chang Laboratory and Technical
Services groups also have an experienced staff to answer questions
and provide the guidance to solve the most difficult technical
problems.
Lab services and technical assistance at Wah Chang are not
limited to Wah Chang products. We have the ability to handle
the testing requirements of a wide range of materials in addition
to reactive and refractory metals. Our tremendous knowledge
of metals and material science, along with extraordinary experience
across a diverse set of industries and applications, make
us unique. We offer the following services:
Corrosion
Testing
We specialize in the most severely corrosive chemical environments,
studying the corrosion of materials through immersion, autoclave
and electrochemical experiments. The corrosion rate of metals
in high-purity water and steam can also be measured. Other
laboratory equipment allows for examining the effects of stress,
strain-rate, heat transfer and erosion-corrosion.
Failure
Analysis
From the initial investigation through to the final conclusions
and recommendations, we systematically examine and evaluate
equipment and material failures to find answers. The vast
laboratory and technical resources available ensure a thorough
and complete analysis to determine a root cause and provide
the advice necessary to prevent future failures.
Metallurgical
Testing
We offer a comprehensive set of capabilities for the mechanical
testing of metals. Among the specific tests are Hardness,
Hydrostatic, Tensile, Formability and Vacuum Heat Treatment
analysis. In addition, microstructure evaluation is available
using metallographic techniques, electron and optical microscopy.
Chemical
Analysis
Our laboratories include a full-service facility with all
of the specialized equipment required to provide a complete
chemical analysis for our customers. Certified in accordance
with ISO 9002 standards and NADCAP, the laboratory is staffed
with a highly-skilled team experienced in a variety of industries,
applications and analytical techniques.
Consulting
Advising our customers is nothing new to Wah Chang; we've
always supported our products and answered specific technical
questions. Beyond this effort, we want to share the full extent
of our knowledge and technical expertise in material selection
and material performance in the harshest environments and
toughest corrosive media. In addition, our seminars offer
several education and training opportunities covering these
topics in detail.
Wah Chang has the complete set of resources available to deliver
the support you need, including distinctive research tools,
capable on-site laboratory facilities and a team of technical
experts ready to help. For a detailed description of Wah Chang's
Laboratory and Technical Services and a list of our fees,
please visit www.corrosionsolutions.com.
You can also contact us via e-mail at technicalservices@wahchang.com
or call us at 541.967.6913.
NACE Reports on the Cost of Corrosion
By:
Kirk Richardson — Wah Chang
This summer, stretches of road and bridges along the Pacific
Northwest's rugged coast and inland byways shut down for repair,
inconveniencing residents and visitors alike. Years of gravel,
deicing salt, heavy doses of H2O, and everyday wear conspire
to eat our roadways, bridges, and other structures. According
to Paul Meyers, who works for the Oregon Department of Transportation,
the state spends approximately $2 million annually replacing
coastal bridges in two counties alone. “I would estimate
that the lifespan of these structures has been reduced by
30 to 40% due to corrosion," he says.
Corrosion, the culprit responsible for the deterioration of
everything from the Northwest's roads and bridges to processing
plant equipment and pipelines to the leaky, pockmarked shed
in my backyard, costs us plenty. According to a report by
NACE (the National Association of Corrosion Engineers), that
figure is roughly $276 billion annually (or a whopping 3.1%
of the United States' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) —
nearly $1,000 a year for every man, woman, and child in the
country).
“The study clearly documents the tremendous impact that
corrosion has on all sectors of the U.S. economy and the ever
growing need for the application of sound practices to keep
our country's infrastructure intact,” says Elaine M.
Bowman, President of NACE International. “The study results
and recommendations highlight the continued need to raise
awareness about this important issue and the changes needed
in all levels of industry and government, as well as advances
in science and technology, to control these costs.”
The study identified the direct cost of corrosion in five
major sectors of the economy: infrastructure, utilities, transportation,
production and manufacturing, and government. According to
NACE, of these five sectors, utilities represents the largest
direct cost — nearly 35% of the total — followed
by transportation at 22%, infrastructure at 16%, government
at 15%, and production and manufacturing at 13%.
So, other than higher taxes and the inconvenience that we
endure while crews patch our roads and sturdy our bridges,
why is corrosion a threat? NACE is quick to point out that
corrosion endangers the public and environment. It can lead
to catastrophic failures and wastes scarce resources. “We
see the destructive results of corrosion in leaking storage
tanks and pipelines; deteriorating roads and bridges; pollution
of the water supply; aircraft deterioration; and leaking ships,
rail cars, and tank cars,” reports NACE in its Corrosion
Fact Sheet.
NACE’s mission is to educate and communicate information
to protect people, assets, and the environment from the effects
of corrosion. Founded in 1943, the Houston, Texas-based organization
is the largest group in the world committed to the study of
corrosion, with membership comprising 15,000 engineers, scientists,
and researchers in 91 countries.
For further information about the “Corrosion Costs and
Preventive Strategies in the United States” report or
concerning NACE International, contact Raymond Poltorak at
281.228.6276 or ray.poltorak@mail.nace.org.
For information about Allegheny Technologies corrosion resistant
alloys and related services, visit www.corrosionsolutions.com.
C O R R O S I O N .
L A B . C H R O N I C L E S
There’s Always Something New
By:
Mike
Abraham — Wah
Chang
For
several decades now, the Corrosion Laboratory at Wah Chang
has been providing technical research and testing to support
its reactive and refractory metals. Concentrating primarily
on the severely corrosive environments where our materials
excel, we have generated volumes of essential data to define
the range of our products’ usefulness. In particular,
Wah Chang is highly regarded for its expertise in the field
of zirconium corrosion, but there are still many unknown characteristics
and capabilities left to investigate. A key focus of the Corrosion
Lab is to keep our knowledge base growing, conducting research
on and providing technical support for the products we provide
to industry.
One of the many exciting projects we are currently working
on examines the potential for improved corrosion performance
in medium-concentration sulfuric acid solutions. This is the
result of our research efforts with the specialized, “low-tin”
Zircadyne® Zirconium alloy. According to preliminary data,
it appears that lower levels of tin content in the zirconium
may significantly shift the iso-corrosion curve in sulfuric
acid (see Figure 1), allowing greater corrosion resistance
at elevated temperatures and concentrations (between 60-70%
concentration and above boiling). Senior Corrosion Engineer
Derrill Holmes will be presenting a paper on this study at
the NACE CORROSION/2003 Conference.
Figure
1. Original Precipitator Grid.
Along with the low-tin effect on corrosion, our laboratory
testing in this case also revealed some interesting differences
in the zirconium oxide film formation under various heat treatment
methods. We are already planning a follow-up testing program
to examine this phenomenon further and characterize the relationship
between heat treatment and the corrosion resistance of the
low-tin alloy. As is often the case, this is a good example
where the initial set of experiments leads to more questions,
taking us down a path to learn even more than originally anticipated.
Another project now underway in the Corrosion Lab covers a
subject that has long been associated with the corrosion of
many metals — pyrophoricity. Under very specific conditions
in which zirconium corrodes severely, a pyrophoric film on
the surface of the metal can develop, presenting a potential
safety hazard that must be addressed. Although there are current
documented procedures to handle these situations, we are preparing
a new study to possibly refine them. By fabricating a piece
of equipment that models the actual process equipment used
by our customers (see Figure 2), we intend to measure the
effectiveness of treatment methods and optimize them to ensure
adequate safety precautions are maintained.
Figure
2. Corrosion Lab Technician Paul Mabee displays custom
lab equipment, developed at Wah Chang, that measures the passivation
of pyrophoric film on metals that have the potential for ignition.
We are also looking beyond zirconium and broadening our knowledge
of niobium, seeking more applications that take advantage
of its unique properties and corrosion resistance. One promising
area for niobium is in iron-contaminated hydrochloric acid
service, a highly corrosive environment that few materials
can withstand. Utilizing our electro-chemical test equipment,
we hope to collect sufficient data to fully understand niobium’s
corrosion performance in this media. There are a number of
opportunities for niobium use in the chemical processing and
pharmaceutical industries that will certainly lead to more
testing in the future.
For more information on these projects, contact me at mike.abraham@wahchang.com,
or 541.926.4211 x6521.
In addition to the projects described above and other work
we perfom to expand the general knowlege base on our products,
the Corrosion Lab can also be contracted to solve customers’
corrosion problems and develop new applications. If you would
like to know more about how to benefit from these services,
contact us at technicalservices@wahchang.com,
at 541.967.6913, or visit our website: www.corrosionsolutions.com.
N E W S
The New CorrosionSolutions.com
By:
Mike
Abraham — Wah
Chang
Wah
Chang is pleased to announce the upgrade of the CorrosionSolutions.com
website. In striving to improve the content and capabilities
of the original website, this new version has been developed
for better access to the information customers want and need.
Additions include new sections detailing Wah Chang’s
Metallurgical and Analytical Laboratories, as well as descriptions
of the Consulting Services now being offered. Each of these
sections allows the viewer to make a test request or technical
inquiry directly from our website, 24 hours a day and 7 days
a week.
Some of the tools from the old website have also been updated
and enhanced to supply more information and functionality.
The Reference Library now features access to Wah Chang’s
technical papers and data sheets, which discuss the corrosion
performance of our metal products and the corrosive environments
where they are used. The Glossary and Corrosion Database have
been edited, and the search utility has been simplified for
easier access to the data. The site also contains the latest
schedules for upcoming Corrosion Solutions seminars and a
revised customer service contact listing.
The release of the new CorrosionSolutions.com coincides with
the promotion of the Wah Chang Laboratory and Technical Services,
providing another avenue to access the tremendous array of
resources now available at Wah Chang. We are committed to
making CorrosionSolutions.com a useful tool for our customers.
If you have questions or would like to provide us with your
feedback on the new website, please contact us via e-mail
at technicalservices@wahchang.com
or call 541.967.6913.
On
August 28, 2002 Statoil ASA approved Allegheny Technologies’
Albany, Oregon castings facility as a supplier of titanium
castings to ASTM B367 grade C2 according to Norsok standards
M-650, rev.2 and M-630, rev. 2 for MDS T02, rev. 2. For more
information on the company’s titanium and zirconium castings,
call 541.967.6977.
E V E N T S
Corrosion
Solutions Seminar Update
This
winter, Wah Chang is crisscrossing the globe offering its
technically oriented Corrosion Solutions Seminars in South
America, Europe, and Asia. The course is designed to provide
information on zirconium, titanium, niobium and other corrosion
resistant materials to chemical, project, and other engineers;
fabricators; maintenance personnel; and others facing corrosion
challenges.
After a background in the physics and causes of corrosion,
the course turns to metallurgy, manufacturing processes, fabrication,
welding techniques, and ongoing maintenance of corrosion resistant
materials. In addition, instructors offer guidance in project
management, safety issues, materials specification, failure
analysis, and other important issues.
At the close of the seminar, participants receive full access
to Wah Chang’s CorrosionSolutions.com web site and a
searchable CD that contains technical data sheets and back
issues of Outlook.
To register for a course, contact Sheryl Renzoni at 541.926.4211
x6280. For more details on content, contact Rick Sutherlin,
Technical Services Manager, at 541.967.6924.
Winter-Spring 2003 Schedule
January 21-22, 2003 — Mumbai, India
February 12-13, 2003 — Baton Rouge, Louisiana
March (TBD) 2003 — Frankfurt, Germany
Nitrogen
2003 Conference
Wah
Chang plans to participate in next year’s Nitrogen 2003
Conference and Exhibition that will be held in Warsaw, Poland
from February 23-26, 2003. The event, organized by British
Sulphur, will focus on the status and prospects of the nitrogen
and methanol industries as well as the latest advances in
technology and operations. Recent world events and resulting
concern over the safety and security of ammonium nitrate and
ammonia fertilizers will be addressed as well. The benefits
and applications of Wah Chang’s Zircadyne 702® zirconium
have long been recognized in the production of nitric acid
and urea fertilizer and Wah Chang continues to support these
industries in refining existing and developing new products
and applications to serve their needs. For more information
on Nitrogen 2003, visit www.britishsulphur.com.
If you would like to know more about Wah Chang’s business
development activities in these industries, please contact
Andrea Van at andrea.van@wahchang.com,
or by phone at 541.812.7054.
LYNN DAVIS
President
PARRY WALBORN
Vice President — Commercial
GARY KNEISEL
Director of Sales
ANDY NICHOLS
Director of Marketing
KIRK RICHARDSON
Editor
©2002 Wah Chang. Outlook is published quarterly
by Wah Chang (Albany, Oregon office). The newsletter contains
information on reactive and refractory metals, including hafnium,
niobium, titanium, vanadium, and zirconium, as well as chemicals.
The properties listed herein are average values based on laboratory
and field test data from a number of sources. They are indicative
only of the results obtained in such tests and should not
be considered as guaranteed maximums or minimums.
Information & Order
Contacts
Wah Chang
(headquarters)
P.O Box 460
Albany, Oregon 97321
T 541.926.4211
F 541.967.6990
www.wahchang.com
www.corrosionsolutions.com
Sales/Tech Support
T 541.967.6977
F 541.967.6994
custserv@wahchang.com
CPI Service Center — US
T 541.917.6739
F 541.924.6882
ellen.baumgartner@wahchang.com
CPI Products
T 541.967.6906
Nuclear-Grade Alloys
T 541.967.6914
Ti, V, and Nb Products
T 541.967.6977
Allvac
PO Box 5030
Monroe North Carolina 28111-5030
T 704.289.4511
www.allvac.com
Allegheny Ludlum
500 Six PPG Place
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15222
T 800.258.3586
www.alleghenyludlum.com
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