Testing Paints for Anti-Corrosive Properties

corroded test panel

Scope and Field of Application

These tests are designed to measure the way that surface coatings protect substrates from corrosion. If you are more concerned with the effect of sunlight, moisture and temperature on the actual surface coating, please refer to our Durability tests.

It is important to realise that the tests listed here provide comparative rather than absolute data. They will, for example, indicate whether Paint A has better anti-corrosive properties than Paint B. What is often required however is a report that states, for example "The test results prove that Paint A will provide effective anti-corrosive protection of steel for at least 10 years when exposed to a tropical marine environment."

In order to obtain this type of absolute data, the client needs to supply a Reference Paint which, in the case of the above example, is known to provide effective anti-corrosive protection of steel for at least 10 years when exposed to a tropical marine environment. The Reference Paint should also be as close as possible in composition to Paint A. The procedure then is to run the test on both paints until one fails. If, for example, the Reference Paint fails first, our report would say " The test results indicate that Paint A will provide effective anti-corrosive protection of steel for at least 10 years when exposed to a tropical marine environment."

It must be emphasised that laboratory tests can (and do) provide misleading predictions regarding the anti-corrosive properties of paints in the real world. In practice manufacturers of anti-corrosive paints rely heavily on records of how their products perform in service. This information is supplemented by data obtained from test panels exposed at various locations throughout the world. This combination of service life and test panel exposure data then serves as a means of checking the reliability of laboratory test results.

In one respect anti-corrosive paint manufacturers become the victims of their own success, since the longer the service life of the products they develop, the longer it takes for them to obtain in-service performance data. It is for this reason that they place increasing reliance on the predictive ability of laboratory tests.

 

Test Methods

We can carry out the following tests:-

Test Standard
Cyclic Prohesion BS 3900-F19, ISO 11997-2
Cyclic Salt Spray BS EN 60068-2-52, IEC 68-2-52
Humidity BS 3900-F2, BS EN ISO 6270, BS 3900-F9 , ASTM D2247
Prohesion ASTM G 85, ASTM D 5894
Salt Spray BS 3900-F4, BS3900-F12, ISO 7253, ASTM B 117
Sulphur Dioxide BS 3900-F8, BS EN ISO 3231, DIN 50018

 

Please contact Peter Collins for further details.

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