Most metallic materials will inevitably suffer corrosion when exposed to natural or corrosive working environments. Corrosion not only causes billions of dollars in economic damages every year, but can also lead to catastrophic failures and casualties. Therefore, it is of vital importance to test and evaluate the corrosion behavior of materials and products using appropriate corrosion testing methods.

To help our clients evaluate their products or determine the root cause of product failures related to corrosion, EMSL offers a broad range of laboratory corrosion testing and analysis services. Followings are just a few examples of what are offered at EMSL:
 

• Salt spray (method example ASTM B117, G85)

• Immersion test (ASTM G31, B895)

• CASS test (ASTM B368)

• Intergranular corrosion susceptibility in steels and aluminum (ASTM A262, G67)

• Stress corrosion cracking test (ASTM G36)

• Galvanic corrosion test (ASTM G71)

• Corrosivity of liquid wastes (EPA method 1110A)
   

In addition to corrosion testing procedures, EMSL also offers materials characterization services for corrosion analysis, in which sophisticated microscopy and spectroscopy tools such as SEM, TEM, Auger, XRD, XRF, and FTIR are used to identify corrosion products, investigate corrosion process, and evaluate the corrosion performance of sample products and materials.

Weathering

Many plastic and inorganic materials suffer deterioration in physical and chemical properties when exposed to sunlight and natural weather, therefore evaluating the resistance to such weathering damage is critical for selection of materials in product design. Natural weathering testing in outdoor environment often requires too long a duration to meet needed test turn-around. Accelerated weathering testing in laboratory environment can significantly reduce the amount of time needed for such testing to days or weeks, instead of months or years in the natural outdoor testing. EMSL’s weathering test instrumentation includes multiple units of UV and Xenon light test chambers manufactured by Q-lab. Samples are exposed to selected Xenon arc or UV light irradiation while undergoing controlled humidity, corrosive media spray, and temperature cycles.

EMSL operates the following accelerated weathering chambers:

QUV Accelerated Weathering Tester
(http://www.q-lab.com/products/quv-weathering-tester/quv)

Q-SUN Xe-1-SC: full spectrum sunlight, water spray, and chiller
(http://www.q-lab.com/products/q-sun-xenon-arc-test-chambers/q-sun-xe-1)

Q-SUN Xe-3-HBS: full-spectrum sunlight with humidity control and back spray
Q-SUN Xe-3-HSC: full-spectrum sunlight with humidity control, spray and chiller (http://www.q-lab.com/products/q-sun-xenon-arc-test-chambers/q-sun-xe-3)