Investigation of atmospheric corrosion of 6063 aluminium alloy in industrial environment

Demand for aluminium alloys is increasing day by day, especially with the electrification trend of the automotive industry. The reason for this increase lies in the advantages of aluminium such as high specific strength, low density, high recyclability and high corrosion resistance. Especially corrosion behaviour is important for aluminium parts used in structural components. High corrosion resistance in aluminium alloys stem from its natural oxide layer. Although this layer provides a certain level of corrosion resistance, it cannot completely prevent corrosion. Exclusively in industrial environment, aluminium alloys are more corroded due to the high presence of corrosive substances such as moisture, dust, dirt and chemicals. Aluminium specimens were left next to ASAŞ Aluminium anodizing facility which has air containing H2SO4, moisture, dust and dirt. Due to high volatile chemicals around anodization facility, this location has been selected to place the samples. To examine and compare the corrosion degrees, 3-, 6- and 12-months exposing times were selected. In this study, corrosion behaviour of the 6063 aluminium profiles placed at same zone with different waiting times in industrial environment was investigated. In order to make comparisons, samples were examined under optical microscope and SEM. At 6 months samples, the corrosion type change has been examined from pitting to IGC. This study is done in order to minimize the scrap amount causing from atmospheric corrosion after anodization of structural automotive profiles.