Corrosion Testing Standards

The test standard summaries are for general guidance only. Though believed to be accurate at the time of writing, this may change over time. So this information should not be used as a substitute for referring to a complete test standard, at an appropriate revision level.

Note: the terms salt spray, salt mist and salt fog are all in wide spread use within corrosion test standards. In this context they can be considered to be equivalent and interchangeable terms.

CCT-4

This is an accelerated laboratory corrosion test method that can be used to determine the corrosion resistance of automotive assemblies and components. It is cyclic in nature, i.e.; test specimens are exposed to changing climates over time.

Test specimens are placed in an enclosed chamber and exposed to a changing climate that comprises of a relatively short period of salt spray, followed by exposure to hot/humid and hot/dry atmospheres. The entire test cycle comprises of a main cycle and a sub-cycle. 1 entire test cycle takes 24 hours to execute. The number of entire cycle repeats and therefore the test duration is variable.

The main test cycle begins with 10 minutes exposure to a continuous indirect spray of salt water solution, in a chamber temperature of +35C . This is followed by 155 minutes of air drying at +60C. This is followed by 75 minutes exposure to a high humidity climate of 95%RH at +60C.

This is then followed by a repetitive sub-cycle comprising of 160 minutes of exposure to an air drying at +60C, followed by 80 minutes exposure to a humid climate of 95%RH at +60C. This sub-cycle is repeated 5 times in total, before the main test cycle starts again.