| ASTM B117 SALT SPRAY TEST |
From time to time you may hear reference to a coating as a "1000 hour coating" or "500 hour coatings." That reference is to how long a fastener or other part will last until failure (we will get to that later) in a salt spray chamber per rules set up by ASTM B117.
To put simply, this testing is done in a 95 degree F 100% humidity chamber which is under constant controlled conditions.
You will hear phrases like "time to white rust" and "time to red rust." The white rust is generally the oxidation of the sacrificial base coating, most times zinc rich. The red rust is most time the oxidation of the part itself.
The ASTM B117 standard as well as the standard used to evaluate the test is quite lengthy. In short, when rust forms on any main surface (excluding sharp corners, edges, and threads) some sort of test failure has occurred.
The test is best used to evaluate two or more different pieces side by side. If we tested a zinc and clear plated fastener versus an RIE coated bare carbon steel fastener we would find that the zinc and clear plated fastener would show red rust at around 48 hours while the RIE coated bare carbon steel fastener would not show red rust until 1500 hours or more.
Other cyclical tests exist that claim to show a correlation to years in service and we will talk more about them in a future newsletter. |
| Spotlight Customer of the Month
Customer Performance Testing |
Each month we will spotlight one of our customers and their success story. We will change the names of the persons and companies involved to protect confidentiality agreements and relationships. We want you to submit your story to us. If we choose to use it, we will send you a special gift from RIE. If we are inundated with submissions we will include two per month.
"Jamie" wrote to thank RIE Coatings for our testing capabilities and to tell us how it helped him sell coatings, and there increased performance, to his customer.
"I want to thank RIE for their assistance in testing my customers' parts. I am sure this is something that they do all the time but the professionalism that they presented to my customer was unmatched. They asked all the right questions to get answers that I did not know existed. They were able to get to the root of my customers problems. After diagnosing and recommending a coating system, RIE coated parts and tested them in their lab at no charge. All of this was welcomed by my customer and they marveled at how and why anyone would do this for free. In the end the results matched what we were told and my customer was able to improve their product exponentially. I cannot thank you enough for saving this account for me!"
Jamie was right, this is something that we do on a regular basis. Seeing is believing and tests results do not lie. Use our labs to prove out your recommendations. |
quite large and at time very overwhelming. The overall feeling from the persons and companies we talked to was one of uncertainty. Most companies are preparing for what appears to be coming...even though most are unsure of what that will be. The Economic Stimulus Package was on everyone's mind and most were trying to figure out how it would help them earn business in an industry that appears ready to explode in the US.
