American Galvanizers Association Technical Services Committee

Transcription

1 American Galvanizers Association Technical Services Committee Minutes of Regular Meeting of December 11th, 2013 Meeting # 111 AGA Offices, Centennial, Colorado I- Call to Order and Anti-Trust Guidelines Review The Technical Services Committee meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Mr. John Gregor, at 8:00 AM, MDT. Attendees were informed of and agreed to the AGA Anti-Trust Policy. Committee members present were: Craig Hamilton Don Fritz John Gregor Robert Messler David Prior Barry Dugan Adam Brown Bernardo Duran Dan Bever Committee members not present were: Bob Woods Bob Olsen AGA staff present: Tom Langill Christine Kleen Dan Barlow AGA Members present: Frank Gerace Tommy Rose Paul Gilbert Joe Langemeier Greg Neece Graham Poag Dottie Van Lue Galvanizers Company Valmont American Galvanizing V & S Amboy Galvan Industries Horsehead AZZ Galvanizing Duncan Galvanizing Zaclon T-L Irrigation Technical Director Sr Environment & Health and Safety Eng Corrosion Engineer Hubbell Galvanizing AZZ Galvanizing Trinity Industries Teck Metals Southwest Galvanizing II- Approval of Minutes of Previous Meetings 1

2 The minutes from the previous meetings, #110 at the AGA Offices were motioned for approval by David Prior and seconded by Don Fritz. The vote was unanimous. III- IV- Technical Services Chairman s Comments The Chairman reported that the Budget Committee of the Board of Directors approved the TSC budget for 2014 with no changes. The Chairman asked Christine if the items for TSC approval had received enough responses. Christine replied that the two items for review were short of the six total responses and responses were due by the end of next week. The Chairman emphasized the need for all TSC members to review and approve documents on a timely basis. Technical Services Director's Report A. Processing Seminars and Inspection Seminars: There was one Inspection Seminar and no Process Seminars since the last TSC meeting. B. ASTM: The issue of plate thickness related to silicon content was changed in A123 and the new version of A123 is available from ASTM as a single with a cost of $40. The AGA will copy the new table 1 and provide it with all orders for the ASTM Book of Galvanized Standards publication. The life test program has reached the 5-year point and the samples from three of the four test sites have been removed from testing. The samples from the final site will be removed in May or June. The samples will be cleaned and weighed in the summer of The report on the 2-year and 5-year samples will be drafted and reviewed by the end of C. IZA: The AGA will continue to be involved in the Environmental Programs of IZA. D. NACE/IEEE; The committees in NACE and IEEE have drafted three specifications on inspection and repair of lattice towers and monopoles for electrical transmission and substations. The drafts are in balloting and the next NACE meeting will be held in March of 2014 where the negatives and comments will be addressed. E. Hydrogen Embrittlement: The galvanizing note on this has been published and is available online. The article on this has been accepted and has been published in Fastener Technology International in the April issue. The next step is on hold until the results of the investigation into the Bay Bridge bolt failures has concluded. The ASTM committee on fasteners is nervous about the combination of high strength bolt and galvanized coating. Tom will continue to work with the group on the Bay Bridge bolts. F. Slip Critical Connections Study: The next round of samples has been tested and the results are being analyzed. The next round of testing will take place in the first half of The goal is to finish the qualification round of testing and have a report on the program by the end of AISC is undertaking a program to measure the slip factor of galvanized steel as delivered and as roughened so the AGA efforts will be centered on painting over galvanizing to achieve a slip factor over G. Process Surveys: The AGA staff will be sending out short one page surveys through a survey service to generate the information to complete a Process Survey of members. This will make it easier to complete the surveys and to sort the information. The return rate on the first set of questions was very low. We will attempt to make another attempt at gathering process information. The Chairman noted that the benchmarks sought by the surveys are only as good as the breath and correctness of the data that is received. He asked the staff to call those responders who had given incomplete data to get to the reason for the incomplete submission. 2

3 V- Subcommittee Discussions A. Processing: Barry Dugan reported no action items. He asked for anyone to volunteer some space in a galvanizing kettle to immerse some welded samples for a period up to six months. B. Coating Performance: Adam Brown reported no action items. Some of the programs that have been monitored by this subcommittee are wrapping up and Adam asked for any new ideas on project subjects for the subcommittee to pursue. The subcommittee will be monitoring the various road salt programs in hopes that the various programs will reduce the need for the AGA to generate data on road salt performance of galvanized steel. C. Environmental: Christine Kleen reported that the subcommittee is participating in the effort to send in comments on the EPA s most recent publishing of the new MSGP (Multi-Sector General Permit) where the level for zinc in stormwater is an extremely low number. The subcommittee is asking all member galvanizers to write comment letters to EPA and to write their political representatives to voice their concerns about the low numbers for zinc. Another effort for the subcommittee is to measure the local water parameters near galvanizing plants to furnish information to help use the Biotic Ligand model to estimate what the actual zinc numbers should be near galvanizing plants. Another item that the subcommittee will be following in 2014 is the establishment through testing of the TCLP properties of galvanizing by-products. Galvanizers will be asked to send examples of their by-products to the AGA for testing at an outside test lab. D. Health and Safety: Don Fritz reported that there were no action items. The next EH&S Note will be about hot work within the galvanizing plant. We need to compliment the Lock Out/Tag Out program with a complimentary program on hot work and safety issues. Dan Bever mentioned an issue with OSHA about a paper certificate in the file for those who are trained by plant personnel regarding forklift safety as well as a copy of the paper certificate in the employee s hands. Bob Messler reported that V&S has moved to having engineering drawings for all of their fixtures and stands signed by a PE. Bob also mentioned that the sign on the flux tank needed to be reworked to give the exact chemical composition of the flux and not the common nomenclature of flux solution. E. TechForum: Tom Langill reported that the potential 2015 meeting sites are Louisville, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Boston, and Richmond. The subcommittee recommended Cincinnati as the site for the 2015 Tech Forum as this location had the best selection of tour sites, including Louisville, Cincinnati and Columbus. Dan Bever made a motion to recommend Cincinnati as the site for the 2015 Tech Forum and it was seconded by Bob Messler. The motion was approved unanimously. VI- Old Business: A. Troubleshooting Guidelines: This effort will be put on hold for a while so that Dan can become more familiar with the issues within the galvanizing process. B. KnowledgeBase Web Site: There are now approximately 100 articles and more are being added each week. Members should check on the issues at this site on a regular basis. C. Software for Design with Galvanizing: Bernardo Duran reported very good feedback from a meeting at Design Data from the owners of the module on galvanizing and the usefulness of 3

4 the program. There are other software systems that can use this software so we may attempt to contact them and see if a transfer can be accomplished. D. App for Galvanized Steel Inspection: The new app for inspection is ready for TSC swift review. Tom will communicate with the TSC to facilitate their approval of the app. E. Budget for 2014: The budget was approved for There are funds set aside for a new project. The idea of investigating road salts was presented and there was information on a number of programs that will be looking at road salts in the next year so the TSC decided to monitor these efforts and assess if there will be a future need for more work on road salt performance. F. European Tour for 2014: The call for interest in a tour of the European galvanizing plants produced a high interest level (>20 people replied with interest). Tom will now map out an itinerary for the tour and contact people from Europe to help with the details. The tour is tentatively planned for early June of VIII- New Business Items A. Priority List for 2014: The TSC reviewed the priority list for 2014 for the technical staff. Some items were moved to ongoing and other items were added to the list based on the approved budget. The work seems to be evenly divided amongst the staff. B. NCHRP: There are two programs for 2014 that involve galvanized steel. One is on the difference in performance between guardrail galvanized through the batch process versus the continuous process. The second is looking at the cracking of galvanized steel in highway products. Tom is a reviewer on each of these programs. C. EPD for Galvanized Steel: During the brainstorming session on Tuesday of this week, the participants emphasized the sustainability of galvanized steel and the change in work on the LEED method of estimating sustainability. The TSC will use our LCI and LCS data to produce a draft EPD for one kg of galvanized steel. D. Stainless Corrosion: The rebar market is being attacked aggressively by producers of stainless steel rebar. Tom reported that the corrosion performance of stainless steel was not as good as was expected in the atmospheric life test through ASTM. E. Zinc Toxicity: Two new one page publications address the issue of zinc in water and soil to alleviate some of the concerns in the marketplace about the use of galvanized steel in these environments. The pieces should be used with customers that express a concern about the issue of zinc in soil or water. F. Application for Inspection Fee: The TSC had a lively discussion about the use of the application and the fee for users of the app. The first motion made by the TSC was to charge 4.99 for the app. The vote on this motion was 3 for and 5 against. The next motion introduced by Bernardo Duran was to offer the app for 30 days at no cost and then to charge 4.99 after the 30 day free period. David Prior seconded the motion and the vote on this motion was 7 for and 1 against. The recommendation will be brought to the board. IX- Action Items for Board of Directors: Recommend that the inspection app be offered for a 30 day free trial and then to charge 4.99 for continued use. Report that the 2015 Tech Forum will be held in Cincinnati. 4

5 X - XI- Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held at the Ritz Carlton Laguan Nigel, Dana Point, CA on March 22nd, Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 AM MST. Submitted by: Tom Langill January 3,