Blogs

Fatigue of Half-Pipe Jackets: Why do Half-Pipe Jackets Fail?

By MTI Admin posted 6 hours ago
TRACK: Emerging Technology Finite element analysis and welded joint method of ASME Section 8, Division 2 is used to analyze the fatigue life of fillet welds on half-pipe jacketed vessel heads. MTI Global Solutions Symposium 2026 February 23-26 Charlotte, NC See More Symposium Sessions

Chemical Resistant Masonry: Refractory and Ceramics - Is there a difference?

By MTI Admin posted yesterday
TRACK: Non-metallics The AI overview describes the main difference between chemical resistance and refractory properties as lying in their focus: chemical resistance describes a material's ability to withstand chemical attack or degradation, while refractory properties, specifically high refractoriness, describe a material's ability to withstand high temperatures without losing its form or strength. This symposia presentation will explore two technologies often confused, focusing on their individual strengths and how to both differentiate and use them effectively. We will offer some examples of how each technology is used in real-world scenarios. We will also ...

Unexpectedly High Corrosion Rate of Corrosion-Resistant Alloys in Non-Aqueous Environment

By MTI Admin posted 2 days ago
TRACK: Safety/Reliability Corrosion-resistant alloys (like, Iron-alloys, Nickel-alloys, Titanium-alloys etc.) are widely used in highly corrosive process conditions that is strongly correlated to alloys composition and their microstructure. Most of the corrosion study on alloys in industries and academia are focused on aqueous conditions, as, it has been observed that non-aqueous chemistries are not aggressive to corrosion-resistant alloys particularly at not-so-elevated temperatures. In the present study, it was observed that corrosion-resistant alloys (like, 316L, C-276, Ni-200) experience a very high corrosion rate at temperature as low as ambient in a combination ...

Trust but Verify – The Engineer’s Responsibility in Safety and Reliability

By MTI Admin posted 6 days ago
TRACK: Safety/Reliability From an early age, many of us are encouraged to “go with the flow” and avoid causing waves. Yet, in the world of manufacturing and materials engineering, silence can jeopardize safety and reliability. This presentation explores the crucial responsibility engineers have to raise concerns when something doesn’t add up. Through a compelling case study involving the unexpected failure of multiple Alloy 20 flanges during hydrostatic pressure testing, we will examine how an initial third-party report misdiagnosed the cause of failure. Only after engineers questioned the findings and pursued further investigation was the true root cause uncovered—enabling ...

Improvements in Thermoplastic Pipeline Welding for Industrial Use

By MTI Admin posted 7 days ago
TRACK: Non-metallics AGRU is advancing infrared (IR) welding technology for fluoroplastics using specialised SP IR Series machines. These machines are widely used for welding PVDF, ECTFE, PE and PP in the chemical and semiconductor industries. The latest innovation involves using these machines to weld FRP dual laminate pipes. Specially designed clamping systems and customised welding parameters have been developed to enable the safe and reliable joining of these pipes, which are made from PP, PVDF, ECTFE, FEP and PFA. This section of the presentation will introduce standard welding methods for FRP dual laminate pipes in workshops and on site, and will compare ...

Cold Spray Repair of Reactive Metals

By MTI Admin posted 9 days ago
TRACK: Emerging Technologies Hatch and its Canadian partner, Polycontrols Inc. are working with students and research professors at McGill University and Memorial University to further develop a novel process that utilizes high-pressure, cold-gas dynamic spraying (“cold-spray”) to apply titanium metal to damaged valve parts. The goal is to produce repaired parts that are as reliable as new parts, but with a lower total cost than that of replacement parts and with less environmental impact. Cold-spray is a promising technology, in that it achieves this without the use of expensive shielding gases, and it has a lower energy consumption than casting, forging or ...

The benefits of nitrogen alloyed austenitic stainless steel UNS S31655 in tank and vessel applications

By MTI Admin posted 14 days ago
TRACK: Materials for Harsh Environments 300-series austenitic stainless steels are widely used in API tanks and ASME vessels due to their high corrosion resistance and good fabricability. They are versatile and can be applied from cryogenic temperatures to elevated temperatures. However, their mechanical strength is moderate which results in heavy walls when the design pressure is high. Duplex stainless steel can often serve as a great alternative with its higher strength but is not always a feasible solution. Moreover, there are manufacturers who are comfortable of working with 300-series but are hesitant moving to DSS. A potential solution to this challenge ...

Effect of No Backing Gas Modified Waveform Welding Processes on Promoting MIC Failures in Stainless Steel Water Piping

By MTI Admin posted 15 days ago
TRACK: Failures/Failure Analysis Microbial Influenced Corrosion has been an expensive problem, and has caused non-containment failures during the construction and commissioning of chemical, petroleum refinery, and gas processing plants. Elimination of water from hydrotested pipes has been an ongoing issue. Many failures of austenitic stainless steel pipe have occurred due to MIC in TP 304/304L piping carrying water. Use of modified waveform Gas Metal Arc Welding (processes (STT, RMD, CMD) has gained wide acceptance in pipe fabrication, displacing GTAW in many instances. A simple experiment is being conducted to assess whether a GTAW root provides some protection ...

Lessons Learned regarding Material Selection of Nonmetallics for Chemical Processing

By MTI Admin posted 16 days ago
TRACK: Non-metallics Chemical processing offers many demanding and unique applications with similarly unique options for materials of construction. Nonmetallic materials can be ideal for these corrosive applications, operating at range of process temperatures. At the surface fluids and service conditions may appear to be typical and common, but operating conditions, feedstocks, and process arrangement can vary widely, potentially leading to different demands and nonmetallic material choices. Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP) and dual laminates are common materials of choice for these chemical applications. It is critical to understand all of the process details, ...

Preventing Environmental Cracking with Engineered Compressive Residual Stress Fields

By MTI Admin posted 20 days ago
TRACK: Safety/Reliability In certain circumstances, the application of engineered compressive residual stress fields may prevent stress corrosion cracking at significant savings, without the need for expensive alloy upgrades. This presentation will cover the theory behind use of compressive residual stress fields and briefly describe the more common methods for applying them, such as controlled shot-peening, autofrettage, last-pass heat-sink welding, and induction heating stress improvement. Some new methods will be described, such as cavitation shotless peening, laser shock peening and low-plasticity burnishing. Case histories of successful use of engineered ...

Life Cycle Assessment for Estimating the Carbon Footprint Impact of Tubular Products in the Process Industry

By MTI Admin posted 21 days ago
TRACK: Materials for Harsh Environments Metal dusting is a damage mechanism that occurs under very specific process conditions, so it is not widespread, but when it occurs it is often at catastrophic rates. Also, although extensive past literature has been published providing laboratory test data, each data set is specific to a set of conditions and they are not easily compared with one another. Often the resistant alloys vary based on the test conditions. This paper builds on past papers by compiling case histories, listing numerous past published literature with test programs, and detailing the current inadequate methods (and subtle caveats) for predicting ...

Metal Dusting – Case Histories, New Processes with Risks, and Gaps in Knowledge

By MTI Admin posted 29 days ago
TRACK: Materials for Harsh Environments Metal dusting is a damage mechanism that occurs under very specific process conditions, so it is not widespread, but when it occurs it is often at catastrophic rates. Also, although extensive past literature has been published providing laboratory test data, each data set is specific to a set of conditions and they are not easily compared with one another. Often the resistant alloys vary based on the test conditions. This paper builds on past papers by compiling case histories, listing numerous past published literature with test programs, and detailing the current inadequate methods (and subtle caveats) for predicting ...

Quit Being So Sensitive – An Investigation of Sensitization Behavior of Alloy 600 During Welding

By MTI Admin posted 30 days ago
TRACK: Failures/Failure Analysis Sensitization is a known phenomenon that occurs in Alloy 600 in operating temperature ranges of 1000°F to 1800°F due to the precipitation of chromium carbides (Cr7C3 and Cr23C6). The resultant grain-boundary precipitation of these chromium carbides can result in increased susceptibility to intergranular attack when exposed to corrosive media. In this study, the effects of material characteristics (carbon content) and weld processing parameters (heat input, maximum interpass temperature) on Alloy 600’s microstructure and corrosion resistance via ASTM G28A are investigated. Additionally, mitigation techniques (lab-performed post-weld ...

Embedded RFID Sensors for FRP Corrosion Barrier Monitoring - Update on Implementation in Chemical Process Applications

By MTI Admin posted 01-08-2026
TRACK: Nonmetallics FRP vessel integrity monitoring with MTI RFID sensors continues to advance. Sensor arrays have been installed in 11+ new FRP vessels to support plant equipment integrity programs. Practical application and observations will be discussed based on experience to date. Topics will include pre-installation testing, sensor naming conventions, sensors in secondary bonds, sensor in primary corrosion barriers, fabrication techniques and challenges, sensor interrogation, post-curing and material additives. This presentation will build on the update provided at the 2024 Global Symposium. MTI Global Solutions Symposium 2026 ...

Using Life Cycle Cost Analysis to Differentiate Materials of Construction Choices

By MTI Admin posted 01-06-2026
TRACK: Safety/Reliability Life cycle cost analysis is widely regarded as a useful tool when comparing material of construction alternatives for new equipment. Despite that, it can be hard to find specific guidance on everything that should be included and how to determine some of the inputs for comparing CPI equipment options. The goal of this talk is to provide a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to conduct this assessment, with discussion points to provide clarification as needed. Examples of topics that are covered in depth are how to determine a failure frequency and how to account for the lost production margin from unplanned downtime within the analysis, ...

Experiences and Learnings from a Phosgene Hose Failure

By MTI Admin posted 01-02-2026
TRACK: Failures/Failure Analysis A fatality occurred at an operating facility when an unloading hose on a phosgene ton cylinder failed unexpectedly. This presentation will highlight the physical causes of the failure, but will also reveal the weaknesses in the mechanical integrity program that was in effect at the time. As is common with all engineering applications, the complexities of the materials selection, design, application, and use of this particular hose will be discussed. The attendee will be provided insights and encouragement to establish a site hose management program, and be given a look into the life lessons learned by the presenter. ...

Case Study on Reliability of Modern Materials: Fluoropolymer Lined Engineered Structural Composite Piping Systems

By MTI Admin posted 12-25-2025
TRACK: Safety/Reliability Maintaining a competitive advantage in emerging and growth markets like minerals, desalination, data centers, semiconductors, specialty chemicals, chlor-alkali, and steel requires plant operators and engineering firms to be educated on modern materials. Corrosive environments demand advanced piping materials to cut lifecycle costs and boost uptime. New piping solutions face hurdles such as lack of testing standards, limited awareness, and knowledge gaps among engineers, especially those focused only on metallic systems. Fluoropolymer-lined engineered structural composite piping will be used as a case study to illustrate how these ...

Mechanical Integrity of High Temperature Steam Methane Reformer Furnace Tubes

By MTI Admin posted 12-23-2025
TRACK: Materials for Harsh Environments As the primary source for bulk hydrogen production worldwide, steam methane reformers (SMRs) require heat resistant materials to withstand their challenging continuous operating conditions that exceed 815°C. Good high temperature creep performance is a requirement for materials used in such conditions and HP-modified, HP-microalloyed grades of Ni-based alloys are commercially employed for such applications. However, prolonged exposure to high temperatures promotes changes to the metastable microstructure of these alloys and an understanding of the effects of such transformations on long-term creep performance of these ...

Long-term metal dustings experiments and ASME Code Case for New Alloy N06699

By MTI Admin posted 12-18-2025
TRACK: Emerging Technologies The newly developed Ni-based alloy N06699 has been designed for high-temperature applications in the chemical and petrochemical industry, exhibiting an excellent resistance under metal dusting conditions due to the high Cr (approx. 30 wt.%) and Al (approx. 2 wt.%) content and the reduced Fe content (< 2.5 wt.%). The corrosion performance in these aggressive conditions has been proven in several metal dusting experiments, not only for the base material (plate and bar) but also for welded and printed samples from powder via PBF-LB/M. Recently, long-term experiments with a duration of up to 10,000 h verified again the outstanding ...

Rubber Lining in Harsh Chemical Environments: Modern Strategies for Long-Term Reliability and Field Application Challenges

By MTI Admin posted 12-17-2025
TRACK: Non-Metallics Rubber lining remains one of the most proven solutions for corrosion resistance in chemical processing environments, yet its effectiveness hinges on much more than material selection. This presentation will explore the critical success factors of rubber lining systems—from substrate preparation and atmospheric curing techniques to material handling and field installation practices—particularly for tanks, piping, and complex geometries in high-risk service conditions. Drawing from field-proven case studies, this session will examine challenges encountered with large-diameter tanks and vessels that cannot be autoclave-cured, and where ...