ROGER FRANCIS PhD, MSc, BSc, CEng, FNACE, MIMMM

I have been a corrosion engineer for over 45 years and I have extensive experience with a wide range of materials, especially copper alloys and stainless steels, in many industrial environments, including, marine, oil and gas, mining, power, desalination and chemical and process.

Employment

As a consultant I have examined service failures from a range of industries and advised on suitable remedies. I also advise companies on suitable materials of construction for new equipment. Both of these activities have involved companies from all over the world. In addition I have done a variety of training courses (e.g. corrosion in desalination plants), plus lectures on different aspects of corrosion, especially for younger engineers (e.g. The Use of Stainless Steels in the UK Water Industry). I regularly do seminars on various aspects of corrosion for the Nickel Institute to organisations all over the world.

At both Rolled Alloys and Weir, I was responsible for a wide range of corrosion related activities, reporting to the General Manager of the Technical department. My responsibilities covered the following areas.

1. Research and Development Determination of each year’s corrosion programme through liaison with Sales and Marketing and other sections within the Technical Department e.g. welding, preparation of budget, acquisition of equipment and supervision of the projects.
2. Technical Support Preparation of technical documents for the Sales and Marketing division and presenting them to clients where appropriate. I also was involved in project discussions with sales staff and clients to determine materials selection to avoid corrosion problems.
3. External Projects I was responsible for the external corrosion projects being funded at Universities or independent research organisations, as well as research students being sponsored by Rolled Alloys or Weir.
4. Consultancy I carried out a range of services both for the whole Rolled Alloys and Weir Groups. These services included failure examination and analysis, materials selection advice and testing and training on corrosion and materials related issues.

While I was Research Manager at BNF Metals Technology Centre my responsibilities included:

1. Overall supervision of all current projects in the Corrosion and Protection Section.
2. Staff Liaison, covering staffing for current work levels and deciding on appropriate training.
3. Cooperation with other research groups at BNF.
4. Generation of new work mostly in the form of successfully launched research projects.
5. Publicity about BNF and the Corrosion Section to raise the company profile.
6. Consultant to BNF’s Technical Services Section.

Standards Activity

I was a consultant on the update of ISO 6509 (Testing for resistance to dezincification). I was also very active (through WP13) in the development and subsequent updating of EFC 17 (CRA for the oil and gas industry) from 1991 until 2012. I was also active in the development of NACE MR0175 into ISO 15156 and its improved treatment of CRA. I was vice chair of the NACE committee in charge of TM 0198 (SSRT) from 2013 to 2019, when we introduced improved practices, and methods of data analysis, many of which have subsequently been adopted into ISO 7539-7.

Research Experience

During my career I have worked on a wide variety of corrosion problems. Below is a list of some of the areas I have worked in.

• Corrosion in marine and desalination environments, including pumps, valves, piping and heat exchangers.
• Corrosion of CRA's in the oil and gas industry.
• Corrosion of high alloy stainless steels in a variety of industrial environments, including chemical and process and mineral processing.
• Stress corrosion cracking of stainless steels by chlorides, sulphides, hydrogen, and in caustic solutions.
• Corrosion in pumps.
• Corrosion in acid leach mining fluids.
• Corrosion of copper alloys in a variety of environments.
• Corrosion in fresh waters.
• Corrosion of shape memory alloys.
• Conversion coatings to resist corrosion.
• Corrosion in the Food Industry.

In addition to the many research projects carried out I have also acted as a consultant/expert, for BNF’s Technical Services Section, for Weir Group companies and Rolled Alloys investigating major failures. I have also been contracted out as a corrosion consultant to a number of well known companies around the world to help solve specific plant problems. This has involved examination of failed components, determination of the cause of failures, as well as giving advice on materials selection and design.

Publications

Because of the nature of my work most of the results have been presented as confidential reports to clients. However, some of the work has been of a more general nature and I have published over 100 technical papers. In 1986 I was awarded the Bengough Medal by the Institute of Metals for research into the interaction of pollutants and chlorine in seawater and their effect on the corrosion of copper alloy heat exchanger tubes.

In 2001 my book, Galvanic Corrosion – A Practical Guide for Engineers, was published by NACE International. The second edition of this book, with added information, was published in 2017. A second book, The Selection of Materials For Seawater Cooling Systems – A Practical Guide for Engineers, was published in 2005, also by NACE International. My third book, The Corrosion of Copper and Its Alloys – A Practical Guide for Engineers was published by NACE International in 2010. In 2012 I jointly edited with Carol Powell The Corrosion Performance of Metals in the Marine Environment: a basic guide for the European Federation of Corrosion. In 2014 I was awarded the T J Hull prize by NACE International for my publications, who also published The Selection of Materials for Mineral Processing Operations, co-authored with Steve Clarke, in 2016. In 2016 I jointly edited, with Dale McIntyre, a book on Environmental Cracking for MTI, which covered a wide range of materials and problems particularly related to the process industries. In 2018 NACE International published my book, The Corrosion of Duplex Stainless Steels: a Practical Guide for Engineers, and in 2019 they published Avoiding Corrosion in Desalination Plants. I contributed the Galvanic Corrosion chapter to the re-write of F L LaQue’s book on Marine Corrosion, published by Elsevier in 2022. In 2023 I was given the Paul McIntyre Award by the Institute of Corrosion for my continued work on corrosion, my work with the EFC, work in standards committees, and the numerous publications and training sessions I have done for young engineers.

Professional Bodies and Technical Societies

I am a Chartered Engineer, a member of NACE International and a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. In the 1980’s I was a member of IOM’s Corrosion Committee and was involved with Paul McIntyre in organising several one day conferences on various aspects of localised corrosion. In 2005 I was made a Fellow of NACE International for my work in marine corrosion. I have organised several one-day conferences, and I have been on the organising committee for a number of International Conferences, including Duplex ’94 (Glasgow, UK; 1994) and Eurocorr 2000 (London, UK; 2000). I was chairman of the Marine Corrosion Forum for 3 years from 1996 to 1998 and I was chairman of the European Region of NACE International (now AMPP) for 1997/8 and 2003/5. I was the European Region Director of NACE International for 2000 – 2003 and 2007 – 2010. I am one of the two UK representatives on the EFC (European Federation of Corrosion) Working Group on Marine Corrosion and I am an active member of WP13, covering corrosion in the Oil and Gas Industry. I was chair of the NACE oil & gas technical committee (STG 32) for the period 2010 – 2012, which oversees the work of numerous sub-committees producing standards and technical documents for the oil and gas industry relating to metals. I was vice-chair of NACE TEG 509X, a forum for discussing corrosion issues in mineral processing and extraction.