Correx is a major event for the UK corrosion industry.

Correx is back for the first time in over ten years and with it the UK Corrosion conference which proved so popular.

The exhibition is being held at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham alongside the successful Surface World Show – the main event for the surface coating and finishing industry – with a large cross interest between the shows and free admittance to both.

Visitor entrance is free and for your pre-registration just click the button on this page.

The Correx Exhibition will be of interest to all interested in coatings and cathodic protection – engineers, specifiers and practitioners alike. The exhibition is owned by the Insitute of Corrosion through Correx Ltd and is organised by Hill Media Ltd, the organisers of Surface World.

The two exhibitions will form the largest UK anti-corrosion event for many years and are well worth a visit over the three days.  The event is being held in the Pavillion at the NEC.

The UK Corrosion Conference, so successful and popular during the 1980’s and ‘90’s is being integrated with the re-launched Correx 2009 Exhibition at the NEC Birmingham on the 27^th - 29^th October 2009. 

The two themes of the Conference are, Protective Coatings for Steelwork and Cathodic Protection for Corrosion Control.  There are a series of alternating, “stand alone” conference sessions and workshops, so any delegate who attends will be able to “pik and mix” between the events and also visit both the Correx Exhibition and the Surface World Exhibition, which are adjacent to the conference and workshop rooms. 

As stated in previous issues the coatings themes for the Coatings Conference, sessions cover Steel Bridges, Steel Framed Buildings and Steel Structures with particular reference to immersed structures.  The well known speakers and Chairmen of these sessions are drawn from a range of experts and specialists in their fields, which covers the broad spectrum of surface preparation and long life coatings, from specifications and the initial placing of painting contracts, with insurance backed guarantees and quality control, through to satisfactory completion of the contract.   

There are also a range of papers, which cover various aspects of surface preparation, coating types and application as well as papers that will cover both successes and failures, giving the reasons for the cause or causes and identifying the high cost of repairs where the specification coating system or application was defective. 

There will also be three hour coating workshops for delegates to attend and these will alternate with the cathodic protection conference sessions.  The coating workshops will cover the ICATS applicator qualification, introducing the new specialist modules on blast cleaning and spray application and will cover the way in which Lloyds will be auditing the scheme on a national basis.

The ICATS key skills sector will also be outlined by David Eyre, the scheme Co-ordinator.   During this event there will also be a detailed presentation on the new, “No Blame”, Insurance Backed Guarantee Scheme, which will be available for Specifiers and structure owners when ICATS registered companies and qualified operatives are used on major projects.   

A second coating workshop will be held on inspection instrumentation and testing of coatings and this will cover the use and misuse of equipment for surface preparation, ambient conditions, coating application, both wet and dry film properties, together with a range of other instruments, which provide the armoury for the competent and experienced coating inspectors. 

The Cathodic Protection Conference Sessions will be launched on Day Two by a plenary lecture from the Institute’s President, Professor Paul Lambert. Papers on CP will also be presented on bridge protection, protection of immersed structures, pipeline monitoring, pipeline AC mitigation and in particular the use of cathodic protection on offshore wind farm structures.   

The workshops on Cathodic Protection, which will be held in conference Room 2 will include one session on the UK Mirror Group (WG 3 offshore), a second one will cover steel in concrete, in particular the methodology and the third CP workshop will cover the new Institute’s level 1 qualification.  There will also be workshops organised by the newly formed Corrosion Engineering Division coatings and cathodic protection workgroups. 

Full details of the individual workshops and the full conference programme, together with Titles, Chairmen, Speakers and timings will be published in the next issue. The conference organising committee have arranged a very flexible structure for delegates to register for half day workshops or conference sessions, full days can combine both conference sessions and workshops and there are also two and three day registration packages so delegates will be able to take in all of the Coatings and CP presentations, participate in the workshops and visit the numerous stands exhibiting the latest coatings, surface preparation, instrumentation, CP design and equipment displays.   

The cost of the conference is outlined on the detailed registration form but the organising committee have kept the three, day full registration to £225.00 for members and £250.00 for non-members. 

Those delegates who only want to register for just one or two days will be pleased to know that the one day registration has been kept to £95.00 for members, £120.00 for non-members and the two day registration fee is £175.00 for members and £200.00 for non members.

The re-launch of this combined UK Corrosion Conference and Correx Exhibition in conjunction with the successful Surface World Exhibition, is being widely circulated through numerous national and international engineering magazines and journals so it is likely that many non-members will be attending, opening up the opportunity for networking outside the conference and workshop sessions and hopefully we can persuade them to join the Institute to appreciate the increasing number of benefits, which membership of ICorr provides, in understanding the protection of steelwork. 

We look forward to seeing you all there. 

David H Deacon

Conference Committee Chairman