Tag Archives: corrosion testing

Corrosion Testing of Oil-Based Rust Prevention Spray

Oil-based coatings can be used to enhance the corrosion resistance of metals and therefore increase their lifetime. Such oils can be applied either by spraying or by using a brush on metal substrates in their real application environments. Recently we performed an accelerated corrosion test on different oil-based coating products for our client Sia Auto Truck Studio, who were particularly interested in the performance of a spray-type oil based coating – an NHOU Rust Prevention Spray. As the name suggests, the coating can be sprayed on the substrate directly from the bottle, which creates an uniform coating. This is achieved by using a proper combination of oil viscosity and spray bottle design, which creates an expanding cone of expelled oil particles, that create a defect free coating on the metal substrate. The corrosion test was performed on 90×90 mm low carbon steel plates, that are extremely vulnerable to corrosion. For testing, the Machu test was used, which is essentially an accelerated corrosion test in an acidified salt solution with hydrogen peroxide. This test allows to obtain results already within 48 hours, which is useful for quickly gaining feedback on the performance of materials and coatings before carrying out long-term immersion or salt spray tests. As can be seen from the photo in Figure 1, the coated sample remained relatively unharmed after the test, exhibiting only a few individual sites of corrosion in the central area. Only the edge of the sample suffered damage from corrosion as it was problematic to coat for this particular test. Overall, the coating exhibited good performance and should therefore be tested further with long-term immersion and salt spray tests, electrochemical techniques and finally in real application environment.

Figure 1. Photo of low carbon steel with NHOU Rust Prevention Spray coating after Machu test (an accelerated 48 corrosion test).

Project EU51950

Description:

Assembly and programming of an electronic measurement device that allows to perform materials characterization in space on student satellite ESTCube-2. (EST: Mõõteseadme valmistamine ja programmeerimine materjaliuuringute jaoks kosmoses tudengisatelliidil ESTCube-2). This electronic device is one of the two major components in our developed corrosion testing module, which will be used to test a novel nanostructured coating and a smart radiation shielding material in LEO (Low Earth Orbit).

Funding

The preparation, programming and preliminary testing of the electronic measurement device is carried out by Hedgehog OÜ and funded by Captain Corrosion OÜ (30%) and Enterprise Estonia (70%).

Partners

ESTCube group assists us with the planning of this experiment and with the integration of our corrosion testing module to the student satellite ESTCube-2. Once the satellite is in space, we will also carry out the tests together.

Laboratory of Thin Film Technology (University of Tartu) is our main partner for assembling the test system as well as other prototypes, that will be used to test the patented nanostructured coating. With them we also carry out laboratory-based materials characterization measurements and tests.

Corrosion Testing of Materials and Coatings

Captain Corrosion recently tested the corrosion resistance of various metals and protective coatings for a client. We tested 8 different samples in 5 different environments in total and the goal was to get an overview which materials and coatings our client needs to use for specific applications. As can be seen from the table below, some coatings needed maintenance after 1000h corrosion test while others remained completely unharmed.

imtest_demo_eng

Product Testing

Have a product that you want to be tested by materials scientists? Then this service is for you!

How it Works:

Contact us and briefly describe your product that you want to be tested. Also tell us what sort of tests you need. Based on the information we can offer specific experiments and estimated price.

Why should you test your product?

Our company can provide you with a honest neutral opinion and test results, that you can use for marketing purposes. Also, we can compare the performance of your products with other competitors on the market, which allows you to see where you stand.

Are the tests confidential or public?

Generally, all the test results are confidential by default. However, in the case of successful projects, we may ask to publish some of the results as a success story – this would be done only upon mutual agreement.

Public product testing video

If your product really is good, then we can make a public product testing video and publish it on our YouTube channel. The cost of making and distributing the video is decided on case basis. Usually our videos receive thousands or even tens of thousands views per year.

How much does it cost?

The price of product testing generally depends mainly on the materials, chemicals, tools, scientific equipment and time consumption. We usually offer different sets of tests that have different price ranges so the customer can select the most suitable one.

Corrosion Testing

Need to test the corrosion resistance of your material or a protective coating?

In collaboration with the University of Tartu we can do both chemical and electrochemical tests to simulate real or even extreme conditions in order to evaluate the performance of your sample.

Contact us if you are interested in corrosion testing!

Chemical tests – Studied substrates are exposed to a corrosive environment similar to the real conditions where it will be used later on. We can also alter the conditions of the environment to make it more corrosive by adjusting the pH and temperature or include UV light. A common example would be a test of series to compare the quality of stainless steel samples obtained from different suppliers. Another example would be the evaluation of different protective coatings on metal substrates.

Electrochemical tests Corrosion can electrochemically be accelerated and this allows to quickly obtain reliable information about a materials or protective coatings corrosion resistance. For instance, certain metal alloys can be immersed in a salty water for years before it corrodes while electrochemically we can evaluate its long-term performance within a hour.

Microscopy – In addition to corrosion tests we also do microscopy studies of the tested substrates in order to get additional information about the type of corrosion. For example, Pitting corrosion often occurs undetected as it stats as a tiny hole on the surface and forms a network of tunnels inside the substrate, thus greatly degrading its mechanical properties. In contrast, uniform corrosion initially affects the aesthetic appearance of a material and mechanical properties are not much affected if the problem is dealt with.