Evaluation and Prevention of Corrosion Risks for Light Weight Automotive Exhaust Components

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of material and design selection for future light weight exhaust systems. Material validation for new components usually requires various types of tests on different types of test coupons. There are varieties of corrosion test methods which are in practice since years now. Majority of these testing approaches are used to make relative ranking among different materials. In most of these tests a correlation between testing and field behavior is missing. There is also no test available in which both external as well as internal corrosion can be realized simultaneously. Additionally, none of these corrosion tests cover the design aspects of the components. To combat this challenge Faurecia has built and validated a corrosion test setup where complete exhaust silencer can be tested near to real conditions. A comparative study was performed between field parts and test parts to validate the test cycle. The test results are satisfactory and duplicating the real-world performance. With the help of this method an accurate material and design selection can be made.