Corrosion Testing of Crude Oil Rail Car Tanks

Corrosion testing of the steel plate tank materials used in crude-by-rail railcars.

Intertek offers UN-37 Corrosion testing required for the US DOT Emergency Order affecting crude-by-rail rail-cars in the USA.

The Intertek Chicago petroleum laboratory is set-up to run UN-37, and has the specified Steel and Aluminum test specimens required for proper corrosion testing. In addition, the laboratory has sample materials of the rail-car tank car alloy TC-128 for performing rail-car specific alloy corrosivity testing. TC-128 Grade B steel plate is used in pressurized railroad tank cars.

Uniquely, Intertek has taken the initiative to obtain TC-128 alloy materials and machine them to meet sample specimen requirements to ensure reliable and repeatable testing.

Intertek provides a full range of field sampling and laboratory testing designed to help clients meet the recent US Department of Transportation guidelines for meeting the emergency crude-by-rail product classification directive in February, 2014.

According to a recent US DOT Q&A update for Class 8 Corrosive Materials (§§ 173.136 and 173.137), the appropriate corrosion test for crude-by-rail rail-cars uses the test method described in the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria, Section 37.

The DOT update states "Corrosivity testing should be conducted according to section 37 of the Manual of Tests and Criteria. When trying to determine whether these materials are corrosive to metal, the testing should follow that specified within the Manual of Tests and Criteria." The UN-37 corrosivity test provides determination of whether these materials meet the definition of PG III within Class 8 for classification purposes.