DCTC®:: Dry corrosion test cabinet: A new tool for accelerated corrosion tests

The ISO 7253 sets forth both the application modes of salt spray tests and their limits. This standard actually states that salt spray tests are not valid as "corrosion tests" (not involving a real exposure to environmental agents) but they are only a sort of "behavioural test" to check the quality of different lots of painted products as well as the quality of the painting processes. From the testing laboratories clearly emerges the need of detecting and highlighting the two forms of under-film corrosion (filiform and scab) in a fast and easily reproducible manner. This can be achieved by the so-called Dry Corrosion Test. Differently from the salt spray test the two salts used are sodium chloride and ammonium sulphate, but most of all in Dry Corrosion Test, any wetting cycle is followed by a drying cycle with de-humidified hot air. This procedure can accelerate the test up to a duration of 500 hours depending on the severity target.