Korrosionsschutz – Antworten auf eine Herausforderung. Zur Gründung der Gesellschaft für Korrosionsschutz GfKORR

Corrosion Protection – Answers to a Challenge Corrosion based effects can be disastrous for safety and economy; early national surveys have estimated corrosion related annual costs of approximately 4% of the GNP for industrial states, or 4% of the turnover for chemical companies. When breaking corrosion costs down into costs of protection and costs of damage, both parts – described as a function of the protective effort — add up to a curve displaying a minimum. This value represents unavoidable costs due to the thermodynamic instability of technically used materials. Caused by insufficient application of available corrosion protection (CP) knowledge, in practice states as well as industry have to deal with approx. 25% additional (and avoidable) costs on top of the minimum. Industry therefore should strive for overall application of CP knowledge and parallel pursue technical R&D activities. States should promote research projects and initiate as well as maintain corrosion education on all technical levels. Responsibility for other important activities such as exchange of experience, initiation of projects, standardization, and certified education, however, can be tied neither to the state nor to industry. This area of activities now will be taken over by the newly founded Association for Corrosion and Corrosion Protection GfKORR, thus filling an existing gap in Germany.