Environmentally Friendly Zirconium Oxide Pretreatment
Abstract
Laboratory corrosion testing has shown zirconium pretreatment to be an environmentally friendly replacement for zinc phosphate treatment on steel and for hexavalent and trivalent chromium on aluminum. To document the performance of zirconium pretreatment in production, demonstrations were conducted at Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and US Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany in Albany, Georgia. The demonstrations consisted of cleaning parts and panels and treating them with an X-Bond 4000 zirconium treatment followed by painting them with the currently used primer and topcoat. Parts and panels were also prepared using the existent depot technologies for cold rolled steel (zinc phosphate), aluminum (chrome 3+ and chrome 6+), and high hard armor (clean-only). Parts and panels were tested in laboratory-accelerated corrosion chambers, installed on vehicles at US Marine Corps Camp Lejeune, or placed on outdoor exposure at seacoast test facilities. After testing or exposure per the appropriate specification, parts and panels were inspected. Results showed that the zirconium pretreatment under solventborne, waterborne, and powder primers performed better than trivalent chromium and nearly equal to hexavalent chromium on aluminum. On steel, X-Bond 4000 ranged from slightly worse to slightly better than zinc phosphate; it met the performance requirements of TT-C-490. On high hard armor, X-Bond showed improved corrosion inhibition versus grit-blasted only.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1085384
Entities
People
- Daniel Pope
- Fred Lafferman
- Jeff Stalker
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory