INTRODUCTION TO CORROSION

Steel Corrosion is a complex issue because it doesn’t depend on a single variable, in fact for those pieces made from steel material under static or dynamic loads like Belleville or Disc Spring the corrosion process is even more complex. Corrosion effects due environment exposure will be speed it up because internal stress in the material layers. As much as the internal stress grow up the faster will be the corrosion process.

Information about corrosion on elastic washers DIN 2093 and DIN 6796 is detailed on this website. Real testing jobs about these kind of springs are explained to see and check the most convenient prevention methods. If you need to ask for a specific corrosion case do not hesitate and contact with our engineers through this webpage. Your enquiry will be appreciated.

If you need information about belleville washers DIN 2093 or pressure washers DIN 6796 you can find it at the following webpages:

DIN 2093 Disc springs
Belleville Washers DIN 6796

Causes of corrosion

There are multiple corrosion causes but the following three of them are the most important:

• Corrosive agents: that means that the medium where the spring works can be sea water, acid, gas or simply on the outside (affected by air and rain). Despite of that, It will not be the same an environment next to the sea than other one that it’s not. It will be important its constituents and blending as well as its concentration.

• Temperature: for the same corrosive agent the corrosion effects will vary accordingly with the temperature. Usually, as higher temperature as quicker will be the corrosion process.

• Fatigue Life and Stress: Different materials or/and Coatings behavior against corrosion vary when they are under stress. Frictions between materials and internal tensils increase the coating wear in contact areas, helping the corrosive agent infiltration on the raw material (steel). This process reduces the washer´s life causing the failure in the piece.

The effect of each one of these factors is also influenced by the other two at the same time. So this is the reason behind corrosion prediction is so hard in a concrete scenario. There are not two identical cases. Depending on the experience, we can analyze which kind of anti-corrosive protection can be more effective. However, real testing will proof the protection´s life.

At this stage, we cannot forget Galvanic Corrosion which always has to be in mind in order to avoid it taking into consideration the materials involved and coating choices for our application.

Corrosion Solutions

There are many solutions to prevent the corrosion but we would like to propose the following two as the more standard one in our field:

• Stainless steel .
  • More effective and long lasting
  • Usually more expensive than other solution like a coating.
• Coating over standard material
  • Less duration. (In general)
  • More economic (Depend on the quantity and type of piece)

Even though we could say the best option would be stainless steel that is not always the true. In concrete circumstances a coating can be more effective than stainless steel material. This happens due the corrosion depends on multiple variables that make impossible the effectiveness of an only protection agent (material or coating). We will also have to consider the solution costdepending on the type of the piece or the quantity needed. All of this can make us change from one option to another to find the best one.