Atlac Symposium
Last 17th and 18th October, 2006 the first international FRP symposium was
organized by the Tanks, Pipes and Relining team. This two days event took
place at the premises of DSM in Geleen and more than 70 participants out of
the anti corrosion industry joined this symposium.
Customers, end-users and engineers from all over the world (Chile, China,
India, Russia, UK, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands,
Belgium) came together to be updated about the latest developments in resins
and applications, to share experiences and to grow their networks.
Interesting presentations were given about different subjects like experiences
with FRP material in pulp & paper industry in South America (presenter Carlos
Muller - BASF Chile) and chlorine industry in the Netherlands (Peter Bogers -
Versteden Leidingsystemen). Examples of failures were discussed by Hans Bos
(Dynaflow) and Wim Smit (NAM). Interesting cases with Atlac vinyl ester were
presented by Wil Moeling (DM Tankssystems), Marc Gofflot (ACS), Han van Gorp
(EdeA) and Mr. Nonhoff. Innovative applications using Daron hybrid resin were
shown by Bernard Rijpkema (Akzo Nobel) and the corrosion approach of the
Swedish Corrosion Institute was explained by Mr. Gunnar Bergman. Beside these
speakers from external, own contributions were given by team members Kees den
Besten and Jeroen van Bussel, respectively about latest corrosion test results
and the possibility for accelerated testing of pressure pipes.
Beside these presentations, all participants took the opportunity to visit
interesting FRP pipe and tank applications at the DSM site, by joining the bus
site tour, which was professionally introduced and commented by Paul Theeuwen,
material engineer of DSM. Busses were also used to organize the transport to
the hotel in Maastricht and from there to a cave in Valkenburg, where the
evening program was located. In this cave, one of the few in Holland, a very
special diner buffet was prepared, completed with excellent life music and
extremely professional entertainers (illusionist, witch, etc).
Based on the many positive reactions received, it can be concluded that this
first international FRP symposium has been a great success. It has become very
clear to us that there is a need for these types of events to promote and to
grow the acceptance of FRP materials in general and of course of our Atlac
resin specifically. If we succeed in that, all parties involved in the value
chain will benefit and there for we will continue with these type of
initiatives to show the commitment of DSM Composite Resins to the anti
Corrosion industry.
