Corrosion – A Persistent Battle 

Corrosion – the deterioration of a material or its properties due to a reaction of that material with its chemical environment – has been with us forever.
People have recognized, accepted, coped with and, occasionally, battled corrosion for millennia.  In the 19th century, we began taking steps to
understand, prevent, and treat corrosion, and we have gradually expanded these efforts ever since.  But recently, corrosion has become a major concern,
partly because our demands for more complex and sophisticated systems and products have been satisfied by materials that are more susceptible to
corrosion.  The insidious and pervasive effects of corrosion have now reached the point where it is a major cost for our economy and quality
of life – in fact recent studies estimate the direct cost of corrosion in the United States to be nearly $300 billion dollars per year.