Ford Laboratory Accelerated Cyclic Corrosion Test
This test procedure from Ford serves as a general purpose atmospheric corrosion test and can be applied to a wide variety of materials, coatings and interactions of materials.
It has been developed to allow the evaluation of the corrosion resistance of metals in environments where there is a significant influence of chloride ions, mainly as sodium chloride from a marine source or by winter road de-icing salt. This test is cyclic in nature, i.e.; test specimens are exposed to changing climates over time.
Test specimens are placed in an enclosed chamber and exposed to a changing climate. The first 5 days comprise of the following 3 part repeating cycle. 6.0 hours exposure to a ‘wet’ climate of no less than 95%RH, at +25°C, with intermittent exposure to salt solution. This is followed by 2.5 hours climate controlled transition to 50°C & 70%RH. This is followed by 15.5 hours exposure to a constant climate of 50°C & 70%RH. The final 2 days comprise of 48.0 hours exposure to a constant climate of 50°C & 70%RH. This completes the total 7 day test cycle. The number of cycle repeats and therefore the test duration is variable.
