#WillItCorrode: Digging into Types of Corrosion
By Deanna Seale, PE
Published Friday, May 13, 2022
April showers bring May… corrosion testing of a garden shovel! The latest specimen tested in our #willitcorrode series was a “heavy duty carbon steel” garden hand shovel
In this series the Home Innovation lab team is testing some everyday gadgets and household items in our salt spray chamber, where we typically test products such as nails, screws, anchor bolts, bollards, stair nosing, gutter clips, ladders, cable, baluster, hand railing, and support systems for curtain walls. These experiments on more common consumer items are designed to highlight the practicality of corrosion testing.
#WillItCorrode: Garden Hand Shovel. After 1 month of exposure of the “heavy duty carbon steel” garden hand shovel to salt fog, results document shallow pitting corrosion.
Types of Corrosion
Corrosion comes in multiple forms, each discussed in terms of its characteristics. The six types of corrosion are:
- uniform corrosion/shallow pitting corrosion
- pitting corrosion
- environmental induced/stress corrosion cracking
- crevice corrosion
- inter-crystalline (inter-granular) corrosion
- galvanic corrosion
With these variations, it is unlikely that a structure or component that becomes corroded with experience only one form. The combination of metals used in a system and the wide range of environments across the globe often cause more than one type. Even a single alloy can exhibit corrosion from more than one form depending on its exposure to different environments at different points within a system.
Testing Your Products
Home Innovation offers a full range of corrosion testing that provides valuable information for solving corrosion problems obtained through careful observation of the corroded test specimens.
Corrosion testing is an important step in material selection of building components to determine the suitability of materials for their intended use. Home Innovation Research Labs can help discover how your product holds up to corrosive forces. Get in touch today to schedule your product’s time in our salt spray chamber.