The Corrosion and Metals Research Institute -- KIMAB (Sweden)

The Swedish Corrosion Institute (SCI) has since its foundation in 1965 developed to one of the leading corrosion institutes in the world. From 1 January 2006 the institute has merged with the Institute of Metals Research. The name of the new institute is the Corrosion and MetalsResearch Research Institute ("Korrosions- och Metallforskningsinstitutet AB - KIMAB"). At present, the staff consists of 130 people, two thirds of them directly involved in R&D work. The new institute is organised in three business areas, "Corrosion", "Materials and Process Development" and "Application of Materials". Corrosion, which is the largest of the three business areas, has taken over all activities performed earlier within the scope of the Swedish Corrosion Institute. The divisions within business area corrosion are metallic materials, polymeric materials, industrial processes, infrastructure, and consultancy/testing. The Corrosion and Metals Research Institute has also a subsidiary in France ("Institute de la Corrosion").

Research in the field of atmospheric corrosion has a well established tradition in the Institute. The first field exposures started in 1938 at test sites, which today belong to the Institute. Research is performed both on test sites and in the laboratories using climate chambers and advanced surface analytical and electrochemical techniques. Numerous laboratory and field projects have been carried out, several of them in international co-operation within UN ECE, the Nordic Council of Ministers, EU DG Research, Eureka, OECD, and the World Bank. A major interest is the evaluation of effects of acidifying air pollutants on different materials and objects of cultural heritage in different parts of the world, including mapping of areas with high risk of corrosion and assessment of cost of damage in the multi-pollutant situation.