Corrosion Protection

Question:

I am trying to stop corrosion on a high carbon steel. The steel is a track for a tool on a water jet system. The tracks themselves are about 4 inches wide, 1 inch tall and 30 ft long. The track is one solid piece and can't be cut due to the 0.002 inch tolerance that is required. The water jet runs city water mixed with an abrasive-garnet. The garnet was tested for the metal content. It was found that the only metals that appeared in significant amounts were aluminum, 7.455 ppm, and iron, 20.83 ppm. I am looking for a possible coating to use to prevent any further corrosion. A.B.

Answer:

Most organic coatings will wear away as the water jet moves back and forth on the track. A Teflon(r) coating may work, but would be difficult to apply to a 30-ft track. Perhaps plasma spray application would work. Two other solutions for the corrosion problem immediately come to mind-plating the steel tracks or adding a corrosion inhibitor to the water. To get recommendations for electroplating, you will have to ask one of my wizard friends. For those of you from Dunbar, PA, a wizard is a guy wearing a tall pointed hat having the moon and stars embroidered on it.

The other solution, and probably the least expensive, would be to add a corrosion inhibitor to the process water in the water jet machine. Recommendations for corrosion inhibiting chemicals can be taken from www.pfonline.com on the Suppliers page from suppliers of aqueous cleaning chemicals, metal pretreatment chemicals and electroplating chemicals or in the 2001 Products Finishing Directory and Technology Guide.