Nearly 2.7 million miles of pipeline runs across our nation, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Pipelines deliver fuel, water, and other substances to various markets, which makes the integrity of those pipelines critical to the safety of nearby communities. Accurate Corrosion Control, Inc. (ACCI) is an experienced, full-service corrosion mitigation company that helps ensure pipeline integrity for clients in the natural gas, petroleum, utility, waterworks, mining, and nuclear industries.

"Infrastructure as a whole is aging in our country," says Nicholas Terry, ACCI Corrosion Engineer. "It is important to protect these assets against the effects of corrosion to provide safe operation to people and property. This is where we, as a corrosion control service provider, come in."

ACCI specializes in providing corrosion control materials and cathodic protection services nationwide. Cathodic protection is a method to control the corrosion of a metal surface. All of the company's activities are performed by or under the direct supervision of NACE International Corrosion/Cathodic Protection Specialists and/or professional engineers. In addition to providing engineering, construction, and survey/monitoring services, ACCI also supplies Cathodic Protection anodes, rectifiers, junction boxes, permanent reference electrodes, testing equipment, and test stations.

As a full-service cathodic protection provider, ACCI can often provide a turnkey approach to projects by performing the upfront survey and preliminary testing needed to generate an adequate corrosion control design. After a design is approved, ACCI has the construction expertise to install the design, establish a routine monitoring schedule, and ensure continued operation over time.

ACCI has a unique approach to performing Cathodic Protection Rectifier Influence Studies and Stray Current Interference Testing, according to Terry. Utilizing the latest current interruption and data logging technologies, waveform studies are used to determine sources of influence to a pipe-to-soil potential measurement or current measurement on a specific pipeline of interest.

"Our approach to this type of testing allows us determine a full spectrum of influence by not only our clients current sources, but other operators' current sources as well," says Terry. "This allows us gain a clear picture of the overall effectiveness of a cathodic protection system and determine with confidence if any adverse interference is being caused on the test structure."

Recently, for example, an ACCI client believed their cathodic protection system was being interfered with by another operator in close proximity to their pipeline. An ACCI study was able to determine that there was actually no interference at all on the client's structure.

"Most people outside of the corrosion world don't even know we exist," notes Terry. "People often turn on their gas stove or open a faucet without ever thinking about the underground pipelines that bring that product to their kitchen. If we didn't work daily to combat the effects of corrosion, those same pipelines would corrode and start to leak over time. Same goes for any type of metal storage tank. Tanks don't work so well if they can't hold the product being stored inside. We prevent all those leaks. I like to think of us as unsung superheroes."

ACCI is based in Glendale, Arizona. The company manages 25 employees and its subsidiary Inyon Corrosion Services from its office in Hacienda, which opened in June 2017. "We do quite a bit of business with PG&E and other public utility operators in the San Francisco Bay Area, and so this location seemed to be fairly central and accessible as our local office," says Terry. "With our headquarters located in Arizona, transportation options to and from Oakland Airport are definitely a plus."

For more information about Accurate Corrosion Control, Inc., please visit www.accuratecorrosion.com.