#WillItCorrode: Your Reputation Hinges on Your Product's Reliability
By Deanna Seale, PE
Published Friday, September 2, 2022
Fall is officially here! As the leaves change color, so do the household items we’re putting to the test in our salt spray chamber to determine #willitcorrode. This month we tested a steel residential door hinge. Check out the results in the image below…
#WillItCorrode: After 1 month of exposure to salt fog, this steel residential door hinge experienced significant visible surface corrosion.
Salt spray testing has long been the standardized corrosion test method used by product manufacturers of highly corrosion-resistant material. ASTM B117 was the first internationally recognized salt spray standard, originally published in 1939 by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Salt spray testing remains the most popular test worldwide today because the test is short in duration compared to the natural environment, is relatively inexpensive, and is reasonably repeatable.
Salt spray testing is commonly used for checking the durability of specific materials and protective coatings. It can also be a combined test of material and surface finish, as surface roughness and wettability play a considerable role in the final result. The salt spray test is useful for conducting comparative testing, where the actual results obtained are compared with the expected results, which usually come from previous tests.
In the competitive building products and materials markets where your business hinges on your reputation for reliability, you need to know your products' durability. Corrosion testing is an important step in the material selection of building products to determine their suitability for their intended environment. Home Innovation offers a full range of accelerated weather testing in our environmental chambers by simulating an environment based on client specific service conditions. We can also perform standard corrosion tests as defined by ASTM International. Home Innovation’s experts provide corrosion testing results that help product designers and manufacturers develop new products, improve existing ones, or respond to regulatory requirements.
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.