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Saltwater Spray/Fog vs. Submersion Accelerated Testing

Q. Recently, the question has come up whether salt spray/fog or a saltwater submersion test is more aggressive. A customer needs to test stainless steel for 90 days in a saltwater submersion test with no indication of rust. Simply put, is spray/fog or submersion the more aggressive test to determine whether rust will appear.

Thank you.

Scott Olson
Aero-Space Fasteners and Electronics - Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
2004

"NaCE Corrosion Engineers Reference Book"

on AbeBooks

or Amazon

(affil links)

2004

A. The salt fog is by far the more aggressive test. Air must reach the surface of the metal for rust to form. The chlorides in salt water are corrosive to stainless, but you probably will not be able to measure the weight loss after 90 days.

NACE has a corrosion handbook with good data on this kind of thing. It's available at any college engineering library.

Jeff Watson
- Pearland, Texas

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