Abstract
Salt spray, CASS(copper accelerated acetic salt spray) and EC(electrolytic corrosion) tests were performed in order to evaluate the corrosion resistance of plated Ni and Ni-Cr layers on Fe substrate. Compared with the conventional methods such as salt spray and CASS, the electrochemical method such as EC test may be beneficial in terms of test time span and quantitative accuracy. Furthermore, EC test can also become the alternative method to evaluate the resistance to corrosion of coatings by measuring the corrosion potentials of the coated layers in the electrolyte during the off-time of EC cycles. Compared with the corrosion potentials of pure iron, nickel, chromium, those potentials of coated layers can be used to anticipate the extent of corrosion. Results showed that in terms of the test time span, EC test gave 14 times and 21 times faster results than the salt spray test in cases of $5\mu\textrm{m}$ Ni and $20\mu\textrm{m}$ Ni plated layers, respectively. In addition, EC test also offered the shorter test time span than CASS test in cases of $5 \mu\textrm{m}$ Ni + $0.5\mu\textrm{m}$ Cr, and $20\mu\textrm{m}$ Ni + $0.5\mu\textrm{m}$ Cr on Fe substrate by 78 times and 182 times, respectively. Therefore, EC test can be regarded as the better method to evaluate the resistance to corrosion of coated layers than the conventional methods such as salt spray and CASS.
