Milestones
For those of you who have followed Project Management courses the term “milestone” will now have become a regular occurrence in your everyday usage of business English, and may even have encroached into the vocabulary of your personal life. For the uninitiated, however, a “milestone” means more in English than just “a stone by the side of the road showing the distances to particular places, i.e. “Every milestone he passed showed the distance to Stonehenge”. Quoting the Collins English Language Dictionary, the word “milestone” has today also taken on the connotation of meaning “an important event in the history or development of something, e.g. a milestone in the history of broadcasting … or a great milestone of human intellectual development, etc.”
Whilst not trying to be over-grand, we at Stainless Steel World like to feel that we keep you very much at the forefront of what is happening in our business, and generally in bringing you regular editorial milestones. For example, this November issue sees the publication of the last in a series of thirty-eight articles by Giel Notten on corrosion engineering. Such has been the interest of readers in these that Stainless Steel World decided to update, and reformat all of them in one handy, full-colour A4 volume available in hardbound and softbound editions. The “Corrosion Engineering Guide” this has become is packed with tables, diagrams, and colour photographs of specific examples, and its fifty-six chapters cover all aspects of: the theory of corrosion; surveys and case studies of the different forms of corrosion including, electrochemical, intergranular, stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen damage, carbon monoxide attack, metal dusting, nitriding, carburization, atmospheric corrosion microbiologically induced corrosion to name but a few; practical applications of corrosion prevention, methods by design, material selection, protective layers, changing corrosive environments and changing electrode potential including chemical industrial cleaning, corrosion examination, inspection and monitoring. This unique volume is an absolute must for anyone in the corrosion resistant alloy industry - a true first in the field of corrosion.
A second piece of news that you will be hearing more about during the coming months is Stainless Steel World’s Conference and Expo to be held in Maastricht 10–12 November, 2009. One of the many milestone that this event will bring is, not least, the fact that it will be chaired for the first time in its history by a woman – BUTTING’s Dr. Iris Rommerskirchen. To quote Iris: “since starting to work with stainless steels and nickel-based alloys I understand more and more about the striking economical argument argument for using CRAs is a technical one. Corrosion is a behaviour of a material surface in contact with a corrosive atmosphere and not a material property. The use of stainless steel is not purely based on exact science, but on experiences and on a deep understanding of mutually influencing factors”. Therefore, my motivation to chair the 2009 event is based on the anticipation to share and take advantage of the experiences of other “partners in crime”. The opportunity to share experiences, to establish cost-effective solutions and valid economical arguments whilst taking into account the full supply chain – from the steel mill to the end user – is a good reason for everyone in the stainless steel world to submit papers and to attend the conference. You are cordially invited to enter into a high-quality network, to gather in-depth knowledge and to share your experiences for the economical benefit of your company!”.
So don’t, therefore, forget to submit your abstract for a paper of 300–400 words before 1 February to Ms. Kiyo Vlam by e-mail at ssw2009.conf@kci-world.com. It’s not obligatory but will certainly provide you and your company with a unique promotion opportunity
Finally, rounding off this editorial, but also bringing you another “milestone” – this time from our recent news, is the item that the Houston-based company Hunton Energy is proposing to build what it calls the world's first “green refinery” on the Texas Gulf Coast. The proposal envisions a refinery with the capacity to convert 340,000 bpd of Canadian bitumen crude oil into clean-burning jet and diesel fuel. Its defining feature is the integration of a gasification facility, which would capture most of the plant's carbon emissions before they reach the atmosphere. Again breaking, milestone news!