Aluminum chromate conversion coatings

Operation nd Control. Control of chromium chromate conversion coating baths is accompHshed by controlling chromium concentration and pH. The quaHty of the conversion coating is sensitive to aluminum accumulations in the coating bath as well as to rinse water purity. Sulfate contamination is a particular problem. 

Chromate conversion coatings for aluminum are carried out in acidic solutions. These solutions usually contain one chromium salt, such as sodium chromate or chromic acid and a strong oxidizing agent such as hydrofluoric acid or nitric acid. The final film usually contains both products and reactants and water of hydration. Chromate films are formed by the chemical reaction of hexavalent chromium with a metal surface in the presence of accelerators such as cyanides, acetates, formates, sulfates, chlorides, fluorides, nitrates, phosphates, and sulfamates. 

Almost all aluminum structures are painted with organic polymers for corrosion protection. The purpose of incorporating an inhibitor interface (chromate conversion coating) between the substrate and tlie paint film is to ensure protection vAien paints fail to perform( ). It has been generally acc ted that no matter what Icind of paint system, and how well it is applied, it always will have some porosity defects and will degrade with tine during service. 

The mechanism of developing corrosion protective properties in an inorganic coating principally consists of forming insoluble oxides on the netal surface. Additionally, oxides must have certain corrosion inhibition (redox) properties which can protect the nnetal substrate from corrosive species like Cl and 804 . In the case of chromate conversion coating, OCC, the oxides of aluminum and chromium have been responsible for their corrosion inhibitive properties which were derived from their soluble and insoluble portions of the... 

Post-Treatments. Although many post-treatments have been used over plated metals, chromate conversion coatings remain as the most popular. Chromates are used to improve corrosion resistance, provide good paint and adhesive base properties, or to produce brighter or colored finishes. Formulations are usually proprietary, and variations are marketed for use on zinc, zinc alloys, cadmium, copper and copper alloys, and silver (157). Chromates are also used on aluminum and magnesium alloys (158,159). More recently, chromate passivation has been used to extend salt spray resistance of autocatalytic nickel plated parts. 

Chromate conversion coatings are used widely on aluminum alloys as a pretreatment for painting, though in some applications, where noncondensing atmospheric exposure is expected, they may be used as the primary means of corrosion protection. Chromate conversion coatings are used on magnesium, cadmium, and zinc, and on galvanized steel to suppress the formation of white rust. 

The electrolytic deposition of a coating that is known as E-coat provides an excellent corrosion protection as evidenced by automotive coating. Today nearly all automobiles are corrosion protected by applying the cathodic E-coat, in which the steel body of a car is used as the cathode of the electrolytic deposition of a primer coat, on the surface of zinc phosphated steel. It is quite logical to consider that if an E-coat is applied to a chromate conversion-coated aluminum alloy surface, a significant improvement of the corrosion protection of aluminum alloys could be realized because such an attempt represents the combination of the two best components, i.e., chromate conversion coating and E-coat. We could find the best example that demonstrates the need of SAIE in such attempts. 

Figure 28.2 shows the typical images of three Alclad panels (an aluminum alloy clad with nearly pure aluminum) tested with SO2 salt spray. The panels are (1) chromate conversion coated followed by priming with E-coat (2) chromate conversion coated followed by priming with Deft (chromated spray paint) and (3) plasma coated followed by priming with E-coat. The corroded area and corrosion width are also given in the figure. 

Although the panel with the plasma deposited film followed by priming with E-coat is visually better, the use of the corrosion width provides a method for quantifying the improvement in the corrosion performance. Also the factor of about 2 difference in corrosion width between the two chromate conversion-coated panels is difficult to obtain from the qualitative difference observed from the scanned images. It can be seen from this comparison of three panels that the use of the measured corrosion width makes the differentiation of corrosion performance much easier. This method of evaluating corrosion test results is used to determine if the combination of the two bests could indeed yield the better corrosion protection of aluminum alloys. 

A nonchromated, water-borne primer applied to [2B] alloy samples, with the appropriate surface preparation and plasma deposition of an ultrathin plasma polymer, was also compared to controls prepared by depositing a chromated primer on chromate conversion-coated A1 substrate. The same comparison was also performed for IVD Al-coated 2024-T6 substrates (pure aluminum is deposited by ion vapor deposition process on aluminum alloy 2024-T6). In the latter case, the primer could not be removed from the IVD Al-coated panels that were treated with the plasma polymer prior to spray primer application. It is interpreted that the water-borne spray paint penetrates into the column structure of the top surface of the IVD Al-coated substrates when the surface energy was modified by the application of a plasma polymer. This effect could be viewed as interactive coating with a porous surface. 

The corrosion widths of Prohesion salt spray-tested alloys are calculated and summarized in Figure 32.14. E-coated IVD controls (CC/E), i.e., the combination coating systems of chromate conversion coating with nonchromated E-coat, showed very large corrosion widths for all the IVD Al-coated aluminum alloys. This combination did not provide good corrosion protection, which could be taken as proof that the two completely different approaches (electrochemical corrosion protection and corrosion protection by barrier adhesion principle) should not be mixed. 

Zeolite coatings have been investigated as corrosion-resistant coatings for aluminum alloys in aerospace applications. The currently used chromic acid anodization and chromate conversion coatings are effective but release hexavalent chromium, which is... 

It has been recently shown that as-synthesized template-containing high-silica MFI coatings on aluminum alloys have superior corrosion resistance to chromate conversion coatings in strong acids, bases, as well as pitting aggressive and the in situ... 

Oxide and chromate conversion coatings (used primarily for zinc, aluminum, tin, and magnesium) improve paint adhesion relative to that which is observed on untreated metal. These coatings are applied by a variety of proprietary processes (9, 57. 58). 

Chromate conversion coating can be defined as the process where works are surface finished in baths containing hexavalent chromium [9]. Zinc plated steels, zinc, magnesium, aluminum, etc. in a chromate bath dissolve into the solution as ions and react with hexavalent chromium to form trivalent chromium. When the case of zinc plated steel is taken as an example, zinc on the surface dissolves as follows. 

Aluminum. Aluminum is cleaned by solvents and chemical solutions to remove oily soils and corrosion products. Cleaned aluminum is pretreated using chromate conversion coating and anodizing. 

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