How You Can Test Corrosion Protection Coatings

It can be somewhat confusing and even challenging to test the corrosion protection offered by a coating. In order to convince you to use their product, some companies offer what appears to be an abundance of information. It’s easy to take them at their word, but is it always advisable? A lot depends on the company. Before believing everything a company says, do some homework. You can check online reviews, look up a little information about the company itself, talk to others you personally know that have used the company, inquire with the BBB (Better Business Bureau), and more. Let’s say, however, that you decide to research some corrosion protection coatings on your own. How would you go about it? How can you find, for the application in question, the best and most appropriate coating?

To Prove The Effectiveness of a Coaching

There are handful of things that you can do to prove to yourself that the coating in question is going to be suitable for your needs. Here are some suggestions:

Find a lab that you trust to do some testing. Not all labs are the same, so keep that in mind.
Check with ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), who provide important information about products, systems, materials, etc., as well as testing according to international standards.
Check materials and approved coating test methods at NACE (National Association of Corrosion Engineers International).
Find out if there are any test guidelines at your industry trade organization.
To see if a company is, in actuality, testing a part that’s been coated, review the test data. (This will also help you discover if a company is just taking a textbook and pulling material test data from it.)
To see if a coating relates to your application or industry, review coating data supplied by the vendor.

Corrosion Happens

Given the right conditions and enough time, practically anything and everything will corrode or degrade. So, to get the kind of data you need regarding a coating, the process may be less about surface exposure using conditions that are more or less unsurvivable, and more about evaluating the surface itself.

For example, let’s say that at ambient temperatures, you’re going to test a surface for salt spray exposure. If you expose the surface to ridiculously high levels of hydrochloric acid, that’s not a good process for evaluation. It’s likely that no useful accelerated data will be yielded because the coating will fail far too quickly. Saltwater and HCl are not the same – so your data would not be particularly relevant. If the coating does survive HCl, realistically, it may be far too costly to use in the application in question.

What You Truly Need In Order To Trust Corrosion Protection Coatings

Here’s what you really need if you’re worried about corrosion, erosion, etc., and want to be sure that a protective coating will be effective and appropriate for your application: Check with the experts at A&A Coatings. We have been leaders in the thermal spray industry for years. We use the latest technology and science to determine the best coating for your needs and apply it in a manner that is safe, effective, and lasting. Talk to one of our knowledgeable representatives today if you have questions or would like to get started protecting your components, parts, machinery, and other surfaces.