Corrosion Awareness Day - Technical Awareness Session

In collaboration with the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (IMME), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan, AMPP Pakistan Chapter organized activities in conjunction with ‘Corrosion Awareness Day’. Three activities planned were ‘Chemistry behind Corrosion’, ‘Technical Awareness Session’ and ‘Corrosion Photographic Competition’. At these sessions, the organizing committee invited practicing corrosion engineers, and academics as well as international experts/ consultants as guest speakers to share their experiences with the participants and the students. 

The session commenced with the recitation of the verses from the Holy Quran by Hafiz Muhammad Haris Qureshi, Research Engineer at IMME. After the recitation, Shafqat Ali, the delegate from AMPP Pakistan Chapter highlighted the importance of corrosion awareness and the role of professionals in protecting the infrastructure, environment and groundwater resources. He emphasized the need for conducting local training courses for technicians and fresh engineers. Also, he shared the benefit of joining AMPP membership, especially for the students which the membership is free. This was followed by Liaquat Raza, founder member of the Pakistan Chapter who appreciated the efforts of AMPP Pakistan Chapter and Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (IMME), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan in organizing this session. He explained the consequences and economic impacts of corrosion. He emphasized the need to develop a close network between the corrosion professionals and engineers who are working in the field. He also created awareness among students of the available mitigation techniques to counter the constant threat of corrosion. 

The guest speaker for this session was Nauman Tehsin who is the Senior Integrity Engineer at Aramco, Saudia Arabia and has extensive experience in the Oil & Gas industry. Upon our request, the speaker presented a paper on ‘Fitness for Service Assessment of Pipelines’ and detailed the step-by-step process to examine pipeline fitness for the purpose of utilizing it. Field technicians and supervising engineers face the dilemma of whether the available pipe is fit for the duty and meets the necessary parameters. In the presentation, he shared the relevant procedures and standards to be used as guidelines. This was followed by a talk from a young female corrosionist Rabia Nasir, Senior Corrosion Engineer at Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited. She discussed the case study on ‘Controlled Potential Electronic Kit for Cathodic Protection’ and how her team developed the in-house solution for the stray current effect on the T/R unit. 

Dr. Ameeq Farooq, Secretary of the Pakistan Chapter and Assistant Professor at the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, University of the Punjab, Lahore presented the roundup of Pakistan Chapter activities for the past year. Ameeq also briefed the participants about upcoming activities planned by the chapter and emphasized the self-training for fresh technicians and engineers so that they are better equipped to enter this field of engineering and have a higher chance of finding jobs both locally and overseas. He further thanked all the participants from the industries as well as the students who participated in this session.

Dr. Ameeq Farooq gave the round-up of the AMPP Pakistan Chapter activities

In the closing remarks, Prof. Dr. Mohsin Ali Raza, Director, Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering (IMME), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan appreciate the efforts of the presenters for taking the time to make the session successful and thanked the participants for attending the session. He briefed the participants about the new M.Sc program to be launched by IMME on ‘Corrosion and Surface Engineering’. He stressed that academics and industry should work hand in hand to combat this threat which is active 24/7 of the year. He further appreciated the Pakistan Chapter’s efforts in conducting an excellent session.

The session was attended by delegates from Inspectest Pvt Limited, MAS Associates (Pvt.) Ltd, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), SGS Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd, Innovior Rays, and University of the Punjab. It ended with the votes of thanks and a group photo of the participants of the session.