Cosmetic Corrosion Test for Aluminum Autobody Panels: Final Report

Over the past several years a task group within the SAE Automotive Corrosion and Protection (ACAP) Committee has conducted extensive on-vehicle field testing and numerous accelerated lab tests with the goal of establishing a standard accelerated test method for cosmetic corrosion evaluations of finished aluminum auto body panels. This project has been a cooperative effort with OEM, supplier, and consultant participation and was also supported in part by DOE through USAMP (AMD 309). The focus of this project has been the identification of a standardized accelerated cosmetic corrosion test that exhibits the same appearance, severity, and type of corrosion products that are exhibited on identical painted aluminum panels exposed to service relevant environments. Multi-year service relevant exposures were conducted by mounting panels on-vehicles in multiple locations in the US and Canada. The accelerated tests have been ranked based on their relevance to the on-vehicle results and ASTM G85-A2 has been identified as the test method that most consistently replicates on-vehicle cosmetic corrosion performance. Comments concerning test reproducibility are included.