Ford Tests Vehicles for Long-Term Corrosion Resistance

Chuck Smith
April 26, 2006

In North America, the Ford Motor Company has started checking and testing their vehicles for long-term corrosion and rust resistance. This is done in the hot and dry climate of Arizona. Aside from this feat, the company is also testing their vehicles for the mentioned resistance not only in hot climates but also for a cold one.

Jeffrey Helms is the manager of the Materials and Development Release in the Ford Global Paint Engineering department. He says about corrosion, “There isn’t much corrosion below freezing. Actually, the worst thing you can do your vehicle in the winter is to park it in your garage. When it warms up, the ice turns to water and carries road salt into various nooks and crannies where it starts to go to work on the vehicle’s coating if it is not properly protected.”

The entire testing is done at the Ford Motor Company’s Arizona Proving Ground (APG). The process of testing and checking is done through a more effective way of distributing the salt in and around the vehicle’s exterior. What the testing center actually uses is a high pressure salt spray. Helms states, “Every so often, as part of our overall vehicle durability testing at APG, a car or a truck is driven into a special chamber where it is exposed to salt spray. With an accelerated test schedule, we can simulate years of customer use in just a few months.”

Of course, the tests that the APG uses are laboratory methods that have been sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers. These methods are facilitated so as to be able to analyze the corrosion protection of individual components of these Ford vehicles.

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