5 Places to Inspect Your Industrial Site for Corrosion

As a plant manager or supervisor, you know that there are always a few plates spinning at once on every industrial site. 

Aside from the daily operations of your site, you must also ensure that the facilities themselves are safe and fully functional as you accomplish each task. 

One of your greatest adversaries as an industrial professional is corrosion, and it may be hiding in places you never expected. 

Is your corrosion monitoring up to snuff? 

Corrosion monitoring is crucial to maintaining the health and safety of both your assets and employees. 

By keeping a close eye on any new or existing corrosion, you can protect your assets and ensure the fullest lifecycle of all necessary components. 

By inspecting for new corrosion, you will be able to quickly spot new locations of corrosion and address them quickly before they become a major issue. 

By monitoring existing corrosion, you can evaluate which assets are of the greatest priority for maintenance, repair, or eventual replacement and can invest your resources where it is the most appropriate. 

Keeping all of that in mind, it’s crucial that you know where to look when assessing corrosion. Here are the five places you should start. 

When assessing corrosion on your industrial sites, the most important places to check are going to be those areas in which you already know corrosion exists. 

While identifying new areas of corrosion is crucial, a keen eye must be kept on corrosion that already exists. If you have already identified it, chances are that the corrosion is advanced. Be sure to check up on these areas to ensure that your maintenance methods are effective and that the corrosion does not progress further. 

While certain assets may be vital for your industrial site’s daily operations, any systems you are using that handle or process crude oil are likely to suffer significant corrosion. 

Oil contains properties that are highly corrosive, making these assets a necessary location of frequent corrosion inspection. 

Boiler systems have a lot working against them when it comes to corrosion factors. 

Heat, water, and pressure are all factors that can contribute to corrosion, and they are daily occurrences for boiler systems. The pH level of the water within a boiler system can also have a negative impact on the asset’s health. 

Be sure to frequently evaluate the status of your boiler systems. Significant corrosion with extensive oxidation of metals can ultimately result in cracked components that put your entire industrial site at risk. 

Speaking of water, water systems, in general, are also sources at great risk for corrosion. 

As previously mentioned, pH levels in water systems can have a negative impact on assets. If water is not properly alkalined, the whole system is at risk for corrosion, which can ultimately contaminate the water within the system. 

It will be especially important to evaluate corrosion in water systems to ensure that all water running through them is safe. 

Cooling and heating systems may present a particular challenge when it comes to corrosion because they are not always in use.

It can be easy to forget about these components, especially if they are only used seasonally or when necessary. Cooling systems that are only in use during the summer months may be at special risk for corrosion because they often lie dormant and uninspected for months at a time. 

Be sure to frequently evaluate your cooling systems– they are subject to just as much corrosion risk due to temperature and water as many of your other, more frequently inspected components.  

Keeping up with corrosion inspection is a vital aspect of making sure that your industrial site is operating at full capacity. Don’t leave this crucial task up to just anybody, make sure that you’re getting high quality services through the expert technicians at ELCO Inc. 

Using the services of a company like ELCO Inc. means that you’re getting more than just external home painting or cabinet refurbishing . 

Our professional quality is a cut above the rest. We have a history of high-caliber interior and exterior painting services, in addition to our dedication to thorough communication and convenience for our clients. 

Whether your next renovation project requires industrial sandblasting, or you need a home painting service cost estimate, ELCO Painting is the perfect choice for painting companies in RI and Southeastern Massachusetts. 

Give us a call at 401-295-2201 or contact us online today to see how the ELCO Painting difference can work for you.