How to avoid rust at joints & rivets

A. Hi cousin Pranav. Possible answers could range from changing the material of construction, to better mechanical finishing, to better phosphatizing, to switching to plating or galvanizing, to adding an e-coating step, to specifying a more durable lacquer, or possibly a number of other approaches.

I and other readers would like to help, but probably the primary purpose of metal finishing, and probably the primary subject of the majority of the 60,000 discussion threads here, is how to avoid corrosion ... so the general question is hopelessly abstract :-)

Please give us one example, preferably with a photo, and tell us what the substrate is made of and what finishing processes are being applied, and what the environment and expected lifetime is, and we can probably tell you the most promising way to deter rust for that situation. Thanks.

Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET