Mill oils, drawing compounds and rust preventatives should be qualified for subseqeunt automotive assembly plant cleanability before being used in the steel mills and fabrication plants.
Soils which later prove difficult to remove can lead to patterning problems in phosphate, electropaint and even topcoat. Resultant sanding operations then lead to a loss of corrosion protection and early field failure.
This paper deals with the reasons why cleanability studies are becoming more important and discusses the automotive qualification programs which have been implemented over the last year.