The time has come to start expressing the findings we are seeing and testing when it comes to thermal growth alloy properties, caused by pack cementation processes. We are seeing galvanic corrosion, contact corrosion, polarity differences, open circuit potential differences, atmospheric corrosion, dissimilar metal corrosion differences, case hardness, and many other property changes compared to conventional alloy processing. So much so, that we are seeing an almost total barrier to hydrogen-cell forming. Not a barrier to hydrogen per se, but a barrier to the stresses which cause substrates to become susceptible to hydrogen-cell formation. This is not only apparent in Pack Cementation using aluminum, but pack using zinc and a combination of the two as well as other elements. The Pack process, has a few rules, the temperature can not exceed the temperature by which the substrate would lose its properties. For low alloy steel this is below 420ºC , but for 316 stainless steel it is much higher and applications can be applied easily at 550ºC. A process that has numerous papers from Dr. Ravi at CalPoly, Dr. Robert Rapp at Ohio State and Dr. George T. Bayer who worked with the applications commercially for many years at Alon, out of Pittsburgh , PA. We take their works and expand their ideas into the next century by combining processes , lowering temperatures and discovering exactly what we are actually creating. The commercial viability of pack cementation is taking off! Whether it is Agritek in Michigan, Intermetallic.group in Houston, Greenkote, Cleveland, OH, Alteriver in Monterrey, MX. We have seen the count on monthly production increase to 3,000 tons per month and now is closer to 6,500 tons per month. We see automotive, oil and gas, DOT, DOD, DOE and Pole-line hardware. Even California has approved it as a green alternative to HDG. -Ian MacMoy
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Ian MacMoy
President and CTO
281-844-4589
API 20P Chair
CIP# 29307- 9/30/19
ian@intermetallic.group8909 Jackrabbit Rd. Houston, TX 77095
"Optimum corrosion protection starts on the drawing board! "-Van Eijnsbergen (1978)
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