FULL TITLE:
Utilizing the full potential of new, high-performance, corrosion protection coatings in the car industry by improving the understanding their atmospheric corrosion properties

SUMMARY:
A profound understanding of the mechanisms of degradation by atmospheric corrosion in combinations of new metallic coatings with improved corrosion properties and different types of joining technologies is necessary in order to be able to utilize the full potential of these materials for simplified protection concepts with less environmental impact and reduced vehicle weight at a reduced cost.

The knowledge generated within the present proposal will also contribute to the implementation of this class of environmentally friendly coatings outside of the automotive industry, e.g., for household appliances, building materials et cetera.

The implementation of the new coatings will help in the work towards a sustainable society by increasing product life and diminishing the use of environmentally problematic corrosion protection treatments.

We are currently facing a number of very promising coating concepts for steel, with an obvious potential of rationalizing material consumption and the number of manufacturing process operations. In the European steel industry different kinds of magnesium alloyed zinc-coatings for coil-coating of ordinary to high-strength steels is a main trend, where prototype materials are currently under test. These coatings display stunning improvements vs. those of plain zinc in standardized corrosion testing, but there are already indications that this may not be accounted for in real service life conditions and there has been a field quality problem for a Japanese car manufacturer using a coated product associated with magnesium. The surface chemistry, being a hybrid of that of zinc and magnesium must be fully understood to secure compatible adhesion chemistry and joining technology.

The expected impact is:

- to assure in testing that new metallic protection concepts associated with reduced weight and more rationale recycle-friendly material use behave robustly.
- to be able to omit complementary rust protection completely and to substantially reduce the amount of protective sealings.
- to ultimately be able to secure the corrosion protection and safety aspects during the useful vehicle service life by the protective properties of the metallic coatings themselves without paint coating (i.e. electro-coating) also in a light weight mix-metal concept.