What Is the Point of Making Salt Spray Test?

In the previous post we said that it isn’t possible to determine how many hours a specific type of stainless steel must resist in the salt spray test. But why make this type of test?

Point of making salt spray test. Why do it?

The limits of the test are clearly defined by ASTM B117 specification. This test:

It provides a controlled corrosive environment that is designed to obtain information about the corrosion resistance of steel in a specific room-test
The resultant data are rarely related to the prediction of the material behavior in natural environments
Often it doesn’t allow a predictable result about the exposure by expected environment
It has variables in final results as: types of test materials, the evaluation criteria and the test chamber.

Only when they have the long-term atmospheric exposure data will be able to consider the possible correlations and extrapolations.

What should you do with this test results?

What should you do with the salt spray test results? This test:

It’s a control system of the production process and the relative quality
- Highlight any faults on the finished product in the effective exercise (in the short-term)
It ‘a good support tool for the design of details that are potentially critical during exposure to different aggressive atmospheres.
It can be used to evaluate the performance of a certain surface finishing for a stainless steel product.
- The finishing influence the corrosion resistance of stainless steel (particularly in relation to atmospheric corrosion)
- The choice of finishing is critical to not degrade the corrosion resistance resources. It isn’t advisable to choose only on the basis of aesthetics quality. In fact, it’s recommended to perform the test with different finishes, all oriented in a different way. Finally, take into account the functional standards and durability.