Regulatory agencies are enforcing current laws as well as passing new laws to remove harsh chemicals such as chromates and nitrates in maintenance products. These regulations will result in lawsuits for non-compliance, not to mention the liability suits from informed mine employees. No mining operation is excluded. VCIs are the assorted products that protect metal surfaces from attack by corrosive agents such as moisture, salty air, airborne acids and contaminants. They do this by conditioning the enclosed air with trace amounts of an inhibiting material.
Protective vapours disseminate in the enclosed space through vapourization.
The inhibiting process begins when the vapours contact the metal surface and condense to form a thin protective crystal layer one or two molecules thick. In the presence of even minute quantities of moisture or acids, the crystals dissolve and form a protective film between the moisture layer and the metal surface. VCIs have been used by the United States Navy to help reduce misfires in its missile guidance systems. They are already used in numerous industries and have begun to be accepted in the mining industry as well. Extreme environments exist around mining operations such as sulphuric acid drift that will attach to any metal surface in any remote area.