It was well known that residual carbon on the inner surface of copper tubes was a cause of pitting corrosion, and copper tube surfaces with different residual carbon amount were different corrosion forms. In this study, the relation between corrosion form and elution of copper in immersion tests by accelerated corrosion test solutions was examined. Generally, pitting corrosion that occurs in actual machines was reported to observe chloride ion at the bottom of the pitting corrosion of copper tubes. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping analysis indicated that chlorine was concentrated in the upper layer of the samples where copper was not detected under conditions of low residual carbon amount, while chlorine was concentrated under part of the micromounds (including the bottom of the pits) under conditions of high residual carbon amount. It was also suggested that the amount of copper eluted was related to the amount of residual carbon.

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Residual carbon on the inner surface of copper tubes is known to be a cause of pitting corrosion. We showed previously that the rapid filling test was useful to evaluate the pitting corrosion resistance of copper tubes. Immersion tests using the rapid evaluation test solution showed that corrosion occurs on the entire surface of copper tubes with low residual carbon amounts, while those with high residual carbon amounts show pitting corrosion. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the corrosion resistance of copper tubes with high residual carbon amount, which are expected to undergo pitting corrosion. As pitting corrosion occurs when anodes are locally concentrated on part of the metal surface, it has been suggested that anodes be dispersed over the entire surface by the processing of the metal surface. Metal processing methods have various purposes, including changing the shape and properties of metals, and in this case, leading to desirable surface properties (such as expansion and drawing processes). Here, we focused on the expansion process and its effects on corrosion resistance of copper tubes. The results showed that hydraulic expansion has a significant effect on the inner copper surface by improving corrosion resistance as the anode area increases.

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