Corrosion of pretreated aluminium after cathodic electrodeposition of paint

Cathodic deposition of paint (CDP) is Well introduced for the industrial coating of primers onto steel since nearly two decades. Epoxy resins provide optimum results. There is an increasing demand to apply the same technique for aluminium, especially for mixed constructions Fe/Al in motor car bodies. However, this metal may be attacked by the OH^?-ions, generated by the cathodic electrolysis of water according to: H₂O + e^? → ½ H₂ + OH^?. The Al₂O₃ · xH₂O protecting layer may dissolve slowly as aluminate and Al-metal then reacts rapidly with water to generate the threefold volume of hydrogen under the reestablishment of the oxide layer. Thus, the overall reaction for this cathodic corrosion of Al is given by: Al + 2H₂O + e^? → AlO + 2H₂. It can be foreseen, that the changes at the phase boundary Al, AlOOH/paint and the accumulation of hydrolysed aluminate in the coating may influence, among other, the corrosion protection behavior of the paint layers. A systematic study of the influence of four different industrial epoxy resins from BASF Lacks & Farben AG (1)–(4) with their individual pigment systems, the one for paint (3) to be free of lead silicate, was undertaken. Seven different aluminium (alloy) substrates were employed. Their pretreatment modes were mostly due to zincphosphatation. Three standard corrosion tests for conventional corrosion, (CC) and one for filiform corrosion (FFC) were employed and evaluated, as usual. The accelerated open air corrosion test lasted 360 days. It was found, that for CC the corrosion protection capability was predominantly influenced by the resin, and it decreased in the following order: The effect of the substrate was not very pronounced, but a relative optimum could be seen with Al Mg 0.4 Si 1.2-chromate pretreatment and Bonazinc 2000® and with Al Mg 1.5 Si 0.5 Cu 4.0-chromate pretreatment (with one exception). The ranking for FFC changed to: , and zincphosphated Al Mg 3 was superior over all the other substrates. The analytically determined rate of cathodic corrosion for unpigmented paints did not correlate to these results, and this may be indicative for specific pigment effects. In conclusion, this systematic study reveals, on the basis of practical systems and corrosion test methods, a way for the optimization of CDP on aluminium.