From left: Wakeel Khalid from Qatar Steel Company, Dr John Lawler of WJE Associates-USA, Abdulrahman Abdulla Al Ansari of Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company, Dr Khalid Ghulam Mustafa Butt from Q-Coat and Tariq Abdulaziz Al Mahmoud of Q-Coat, at the press conference at Grand Hyatt yesterday.
BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB
DOAH: Qatar Metals Coating Company (Q-Coat), the sole supplier of anti-corrosion epoxy coated steel bars, is conducting a comprehensive applied research to analyse and explore the benefits of using epoxy coated steel in the construction sector, a senior official of Qatar Steel announced yesterday.
Wakeel Khalid, Metallurgist and Research and Development Manager at Qatar Steel, said: “The exposure study includes a field exposure as well as laboratory test on fusion bonded epoxy-coated steel reinforcing bars (FBECR). The field exposure study, conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Ashghal, University of Texas A&M at Qatar, Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), will provide a detailed result on the performance of epoxy-coated and uncoated bars.”
Under the study, concrete blocks made up with coated and uncoated steel bars will be kept in Al Wakra beach for 96 weeks, which will be taken out on a quarterly basis to study the impact of salinity, carbonation, chloride and other contamination.
It aims to evaluate the performance of Q-Coats’s products to make sure that they are effective and comply with the international standards.
Q-Coat is a joint venture between Qatar Steel and Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) which produces about 100,000 tonnes of epoxy-coated steel bars annually. The company is looking to expand its production capacity, expecting a sharp increase in the demand of epoxy-coated steel bars for the mega projects to avoid the menace of corrosion in concrete reinforcement.
Since its inception in 1990, the company has exported its internationally accepted products to big companies including Saudi Aramco, UAE-based Al Futtaim Wimpey and many private and government funded projects such as Museum of Islamic Arts, Qatar Flour Mills Copany, Ras Abu Fontas Power and Desalination Plant and others.
Khalid was speaking at a media briefing organised by Q-Coat on the sidelines of the ‘2nd Annual Corrosion Management Summit’.
Ali bin Hassan Martian, Chairman and Managing Director of Q-Coat, said in a statement that the company has been striving to keep up its leading position in Qatar and GCC markets and it has been consistently growing over the years to remain as the largest epoxy coating plant in the region.
The press conference was presided over by Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al Ansari, Board Member at Q-Coat. Present were Tareq Abdul Aziz Al Mahmoud, Production Manager; Dr Khalid Butt, Manager, Projects Division both from Qatar Steel; Dr John Lawler, Associate Principal at the US-based Wiss, Janney, Elstner (WJE) Associates, Inc; and others.
“We are actively participating in the ongoing three-day seminar on corrosion management. The event is very important with regard to mega infrastructure projects to be developed in Qatar over the next 10 years,” said Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al Ansari, Board Member of Q-Coat.
He added that the seminar will help enhance the level of awareness about the quality and specifications of appropriate building materials such as epoxy-coated bars to be used in the upcoming projects to avoid corrosion.
“I am here to give some perspective on how epoxy bars can provide protection against exposures to marine salts that might be present here,” said Lawler of WJE Associates Inc. He was here to make a presentation on corrosion management.
“In the US more than 200 studies have been done on epoxy steel bars, and in general both, laboratory and field evidences have shown good performances,” added Lawler.
WJE Inc provides a wide range of consultancy services including research and testing on concrete materials, construction assistance and troubleshooting.
The Peninsula
