Coatings World - March 2013

AkzoNobel and University
Form Partnership to Develop
Corrosion Inhibition Coatings

The partnership between AkzoNobel and The University of Manchester will focus on the
scientific understanding of corrosion protection and the knowledge generated will be
used to deliver improved corrosion protection products.
Kerry Pianoforte, Editor

AkzoNobel and the Corrosion and Protection Centre (CPC) at the University of Manchester have formed the AkzoNobel Laboratory of Corrosion Protection. The laboratory is a result of a five-year landmark strategic partnership between the largest global paint and coatings company and one of the U.K.’s top universities.

“The agreement was signed in
December 2011,” said Simon Gibbon,
community of practice leader – cor-
rosion protection, research, develop-
ment and innovation at AkzoNobel.
“Professor Stuart Lyon was appointed
on April 1, 2012 as the AkzoNobel
Professor of Corrosion Control, based
in the School of Materials, to oversee an
agreed research program to be supported
by research staff within UoM. Two MSc
projects were completed in 2012 and the
first Post-doctorate projects started on
the December 1, 2012.”
The University of Manchester is home to the world’s largest
academic unit dedicated to the study of corrosion. Its partner-
ship with AkzoNobel commenced in April 2012 to help tackle
the annual $3 trillion global annual cost, accounting for more
than three percent of the world’s GDP, according to AkzoNobel.

The partnership allows AkzoNobel access to the sophisticated and state-of-the-art specialist measurement equipment

Graeme Armstrong, AkzoNobel’s head of RD&I with Professor Colin Bailey from Manchester University.

and techniques developed by the CPC, as well as consul-tancy and training.

“The partnerships’s goal is to provide scientific understanding of a number of key questions which remain to be solved for corrosion protection – Why do coatings work and why do coatings fail? What allows a corrosion protection system to protect many different metals? How long will a system provide corrosion protection? How to detect corrosion early? How to achieve