InterCorr International, the Houston-based corrosion engineering and technology company, was granted a new patent (US Application 09/202193) for "Assessment of Corrosion." The patent covers various aspects of corrosion assessment, the most fascinating of which includes the ability to automatically determine the corrosion mechanism without the need to rip open the pipe or vessel for inspection. Kenneth MacKenzie, Chairman of InterCorr, said, "Certainly the greatest challenge to industry in overcoming corrosion is to detect that there is a problem well in advance of a material failure. In most cases of pressure equipment, it can be too late even if corrosion is observed and patched during a turnaround inspection - equipment replacement is then inevitable, and costly.