New Alloy Coat reduces Steel Rusting - Get Assured with Salt Spray Tester

Steel is one metal that has been used in various industries for numerous applications due to its beneficial properties and features. However, as useful as it is, steel is too vulnerable to corrosion and that is a weakness that can affect its further end-use. Steel is never used uncoated. It is often coated with other types of metals to improve its resistance against corrosive environments. Though Aluminium is considered to be a common anti-corrosion coating agent, it can react to chloride ions present in salty water or fog and lead to rusting. As per recent Korean research, a new alloy coating may prove helpful to increase the resistance strength of steel towards salt fog corrosion. This new invention may prove a boon for many steel manufacturers but still how can one be sure that the method works for all types of steel material. Here is a write up that can help the steel manufacturers to get assured of their material’s corrosion resistance by testing them with the Salt Spray Test Chamber for Evaluation of Salt Fog Corrosion Resistance.

How will this new alloy coating help slow down steel rusting?

As per the new research done at the Korea Maritime and Ocean University (KMOU), this new alloy coating is composed of aluminium, magnesium and silicon that is an alloy of Al-Mg-Si. This alloy coating when applied to the steel material formed two layers. Near the surface was mostly aluminium-based, while the layer that is deep down the coating is made up of aluminium, magnesium and silicon. This inner layer acts as a barrier that is creating a shield against corrosion and will protect the steel material beneath for the long run.

How to assure that the sample coated with alloy is protected against Corrosion?

The discovery of such a coating may prove to be a boon to all players in the steel industry, however, not all steel materials are apt for the coating. It is vital to check if your material is made for this level of protection or will this coating be able to protect them against corrosion or not.

Now the question arises that without releasing the coated product to the actual end-use environment and keeping them at the same conditions for years, how can one predict the behaviour or protection performance of the coating? The answer lies in the Salt Spray Test.

Salt spray test, salt fog test or corrosion resistance test, whatever the terminology be, is used to evaluate the performance of coating or metal against a corrosive environment. The test recreates an accelerated corrosion condition that is equal to many years of corrosion effect. The test must be performed as per international Salt Spray test standard ASTM B117 and it requires a high-end and precisely designed corrosion test chamber that can help deliver the required test parameters and allow uniform and accurate testing as well as highly analytical assessment of test results.

Can one estimate the duration at which the material will corrode?

Yes, one can estimate the duration of the corrosive effect on the material with a precisely designed Salt Spray Corrosion Tester. The test chamber can recreate the real-life corrosive condition that the material might experience by accelerating the corrosion process. This way one can get the results of years of corrosion within a few hours.

Salt Spray Test Chamber - Bringing Innovation in Corrosion Testing

Salt Spray Chamber is an innovative testing machine that helps the product engineers to ensure that the coating or material they are going to use in their end product as components or the whole product body delivers maximum resistance against corrosive salt fog conditions in the atmosphere. The steel manufacturers who are interested in using this new alloy coating can evaluate the performance of their product after applying the coating and getting it tested in the chamber.

The machine is precisely designed as the salt spray test standard ASTM B117 and comes with high-end features. It is equipped with a microprocessor-based digital controller. Properties like good insulation, fog checker, automated salt solution filler and much more.

As per the previously conducted test, the sample material coated with the new alloy coating was when subjected to the salt spray test machine, the new coating performed excellent compared to other materials. In samples like aluminized and galvanized steel, a significant amount of rust showed after 800 hours of salt spray corrosion test.