Saving Christmas from corrosion

CP system saves the North Pole from unnecessary delays.

Back in 2010, Santa Claus and his elves faced a huge predicament. With the world population standing at almost 7 billion — up 13 per cent from 2000, Santa’s traditional wooden sleigh could no longer take the weight. To carry the extra 81 million presents to children and adults all over the world, he decided to upgrade to a new steel structure.

Over the last ten years, Santa’s new sleigh has impressed the team at the North Pole, thanks to its high strength to weight ratio. The durable material has stood the test of time in many ways, helping Santa and his team deliver presents on time, year on year, on a global scale. However, steel has one nemesis, which Santa knew he had to plan for — corrosion.

Corrosion is a natural, electrochemical process where metals are gradually degraded and destroyed as part of two simultaneous chemical reactions. A well-known example of this is rust, where iron is electrochemically converted by oxygen and water into hydrated iron oxides.

The last thing that Santa Clause wants to find when he uncovers his sleigh on Christmas Eve is rust. So, he enlisted the help of Omniflex to deliver a cathodic protection (CP) system that uses remote monitoring technology to provide Santa Clause and his elves with ongoing reassurance that the system was operating as intended and corrosion levels were under control.

Remote monitoring a CP system provides several benefits. Firstly, cloud-based remote monitoring platforms provide a single, easy-to-access repository for all live and historical CP data. Secondly, by automatically monitoring and recording data relating to asset performance and system status, all abnormal events can be reported directly to all relevant personnel without delay. Finally, ongoing maintenance costs are lower when remote monitoring technologies are because there is a reduced need to physically inspect systems.

“We’ve seen a huge difference in efficiency on Christmas Eve since working with Omniflex,” explained Santa Clause. “Now, instead of having to carry out manual walkarounds to inspect the sleigh, we have peace of mind that it is operating as it should.”

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