Improvement of Steel Sheets’ Corrosion Resistance by Application of New Generation Coatings

Abstract

Besides customers and environmental requirements such as safety increase, the weight and emission reduction, and the life-time improvement, huge role plays corrosion resistance of the car-body components. This is improved by applying Zn-based coatings on the steel sheets. In the article are presented results of corrosion tests performed on the steel sheets with Zn-Al-Mg coatings applied. These are compared to the standard Zn coating. Samples were deformed by Erichsen stretching test and by 3-point bending tests to the angle of 90° and 180°. After that, these were exposed to salt spray in the corrosion chamber. The limit criteria were time to red corrosion appearance and percentage of corroded surface evaluated on time. The results showed the small amount of Al and Mg improved the corrosion resistance of Zn-Al-Mg coatings when compared to the conventional Zn coating.