We all know what happens when you accidently leave a tool outside in the rain and elements, after a week or so it starts to get a little rusty. Now imagine if that tool was worth tens of thousands of pounds and was corroded and unusable? Pretty expensive and a waste of time and resources. Indeed, in a report by the U.S. Department of Defense they estimated corrosion cost them $20.6 billion. Further, another study estimated the total annual cost of corrosion to the U.S. aerospace industry is £2.2 billion.
To provide leadership on corrosion matters, including the development of policy guidance and oversight, The DOD established an organisational structure that includes the Corrosion Office and Corrosion Executives in order to help combat the ever increasing cost of corrosion to the US military.
According to OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) estimates, approximately 30% of current DoD corrosion costs could be avoided through investment in sustainment, design, and manufacture and other preventative measures such as paint and avoidance of dissimilar metals.
Using the United States Army’s Corrosion Prevention and Mitigation program, the Army reported a total of $2.4 million for salaries of personnel, contractor support, and other associated costs, of which $1 million of this total was associated with the Office of the Corrosion Executive in fiscal year 2017.
United States Government Accountability Office
How Fast Can Corrosion Occur?
Oftentimes, manufacturing plants have to ship components or assets to another factory globally to continue the manufacturing process, but what happens when it leaves your location and arrives at the next and is found to be corroded and unusable? It slows or even stops the manufacturing process.
Corrosion is not just simply rusting metal – it can take varied forms, such as rusting, pitting, galvanic reaction, calcium or other mineral buildup, degradation due to ultraviolet light exposure, and mold, mildew, or other organic decay.
In some circumstances, clean metal components can start to show signs of corrosion after only a few minutes, so ensuring that your assets and components are always at an appropriate temperature and stored properly is paramount. This goes double for components that are shipped internationally in containers on ships, as salt water and the sea air is highly corrosive.
Where Does Corrosion Occur During Transit?
It is not always clear where the corrosion or damage took place during transit, as international freight can take days, if not weeks, to get from point to point with zero visibility of the components. This makes it imperative to look at the process and component touch points from beginning to end.
Corrosion can occur at any point of a components manufacturing journey. Poor transportation methods, high humidity, packaged incorrectly or simply left in a loading bay for too long before or after transport, there is not one set answer. Being able to not only track a components location, environmental factors, temperature, and ‘dew point’ can help save a business money, effort, and enforced downtime.
How Can I Reduce My Corrosion Risk?
By using Pathfindr’s real-time asset tracking system, you will be able to see up-to-the-minute data on your components no matter where they are in the processing chain. The cutting-edge technology allows you to see the location of the asset, the temperature around it, whether it is moving (tag has built in accelerometer) and how close the asset is to it’s ‘dew point’ (which is customisable).
By seeing all the current temperature, dew point and potential corrosion marker data in one easy-to-use online platform, you will be better equipped to understand what areas of the process have enabled corrosion to start, and better yet, be able to then use that information to make changes to your process to reduce the likelihood of corrosion starting. While corrosion is not always highly visible, it can lead facilities and goods to experience structural failures, loss of capital investments, and environmental damage that can be irreversible.
With the ability to see the data in real-time, you could save thousands each month, not only in replacing corroded goods, but also in reduced downtime and manufacturing costs.