An Assessment of Nine Accelerated Atmospheric Corrosion Sites on the Cosmetic Corrosion Performance of the AISI Materials - Interim Report

A series of painted materials were exposed at nine atmospheric corrosion test sites around the world as part of the AISI/SAE cosmetic corrosion program. The object of the exposure program was to assess the impact of accelerated atmospheric weathering on the cosmetic corrosion performance of the AISI materials and to determine if the accelerated atmospheric environment ranked the performance of materials in the same order as on-vehicle field testing. Accelerated atmospheric weathering was added to the AISI/SAE test program to round out the testing program and provide another “environment” in which to assess cosmetic corrosion. Accelerated weathering is believed to represent the closest test methodology to simulate actual field testing, the environment in which the materials must perform.

The program is continuing, and after 15 months exposure, results are compared to the performance of the same materials in actual on-vehicle field exposure in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Foundland (Montreal and St. Johns). Statistical methods are used to compare the rankings of materials at each site against the on-vehicle field results.

Interim results indicate that all sites rank material performance similar to the field results and confirm that accelerated atmospheric exposure can rank material performance on-vehicle.