Accelerated and Outdoor Exposure Tests of Aluminum Coated Steel Sheets

Hot dip metallic coated steels like as galvanized (GI), zinc-aluminium (GL) and aluminium coated steels are mostly used where corrosion resistance is needed. There are two kinds (type 1 and type 2) of aluminium coated steel being commercially used among them. Type 1 aluminium coated steel is coated with an Al-5~11 wt%Si alloy and Type 2 aluminium coated steel consists of commercially pure aluminium. Type 1 Al coated steel is generally used in automotive components and electrical appliances while type 2 aluminium coated steel is mainly used in construction applications such as building cladding panels, air conditioning and ventilation system. In this study, Type 1 aluminium coated steels have tested by accelerated conditions (salt spray or corrosive gas) and outdoor exposure condition in order to understand their corrosion behaviour. Due to the distinct corrosion mechanism of Al which exposes to the severe chloric condition, Salt Spray Test cannot predict the ordinary atmospheric corrosion of Al based coated materials. In addition, the test results and their corrosion feature of Al coated steel sheets will be discussed comparing with other metallic coated steel sheets of GI and GL.