Development of a Novel Method to Simulate Cavity Preservation in Automotive Industry 2020-01-0900

Corrosion protection is a major topic of research for automotive manufacturers and major suppliers. The most critical parts affected by corrosion are the pillars and cavities. Automotive manufacturers spend a lot of effort to improve protection layers as much as possible to increase the longevity of their products. The Electro-Coat Paint Operation (ELPO) or E-Coat process is key in achieving this goal. Unfortunately, often the electric current does not reach all the areas very well and resulting in undercoating. Also, the consequent baking process might see the ovens not achieving the desired temperatures into the cavities. As a fact it often happens that these areas are exposed by undercoating, and hence undermining the quality of corrosion protection.

Some car manufacturers investigate one level more to assure a good quality of corrosion protection also within cavities, by applying wax. This wax coating process aims to cover all problematic areas in a way to make cavities more resistant to unfriendly conditions such as rain, snow, and salt. At present, waxing solves those problems quite well. However, the wax is an expensive product and car manufacture investigate to minimize the material cost while keeping quality as high as possible.