What is the best way to balance corrosion resistance with other material properties for harsh environments?

Our air has corrosive agents that when combined in the right environment create the breading ground for corrosion. We find that the one of the easiest ways to begin to fight corrosion is to have a good preventive maintenance schedule. We offer a neutralizer for various corrosives. When used properly this will reduce the effects greatly.

Pourbaix diagram is the electrochemical theory which exhibits metal's phase with the relation between the electrical potential (V) and pH in solution. Without conducting electricity (0 V), it can be considered environments in acid or base solutions. For example, the diagram shows that metal A is eroded in acid (pH < 5), and it is changed to metal hydroxide in base (pH > 9). In contrast, metal B is eroded in strong acid (pH < 1), and it is not altered to other phases in any bases. If we have to choose the metal for harsh environments, metal B may be more favorable to be selected, compared with metal A.

In some metals, passivation layers are formed on their surfaces by acids instead of rust, which are so-called valve metals. In addition, these metals form their oxide layers on their surfaces, which have their property of corrosion resistance. Therefore, valve metals and their alloys have utilized to protect materials from corrosion. For instance, Nb and its alloy have utilized steel, buildings, ships, and other applications. By contrast, Al and Ti are light metals. Therefore, their alloys have been applied for automobiles and airplanes to enhance fuel efficiency.

For classification of stainless steels one should avoid using super duplex as a class. As one could argue that super austenitic stainless steels are also a class and with the same token hyper duplex steels are another class.

One of methods for corrosion resistance is metal plating, such as Pt, Ni, and Cr. For example, plating of Pt has been applied for electronics, machines, and airplanes because Pt has the high durability for chemicals, heat, and corrosion. Current density is the crucial factor to synthesize metallic layers on the surface of a material. As the current density is lower, the growth of the layers is slower, and the surface is smoother. On the other hand, as the current density is higher, the growing pace is higher, and the surface is rougher. In addition, smoother layers have high hardness, and cracks tend to occur in the layers, compared with rougher layers.

If you just want to protect any surface from corrosion you can use a thin film coating technique. Where you can protect the surface with thin layers of highly resistive material. Sometimes coating would be tough to perform (because of no adhesion between substrate and thin film) but you can achieve that with the help of the sacrificial or seed layer.

We have developed a system to treat all ferrous based metals either coated or none coated. Heavy machines for mining, salt water work, sugar, fertilizer, etc. This system has a 7 plus year record. We also can protect the electrical and exhaust systems.as well. This system has doubled the life of these very expensive machines.