New Testing Method for VCI-products Developed by the BFSV Institute at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg

There are a number of testing methods for VCI corrosion inhibitors. It is not possible to obtain any reliable information about the suitability of such a VCI packaging material from individual testing methods under the complex conditions of technical application. It has therefore become commonplace throughout the world to apply several testing methods in order to obtain information about the corrosion protection properties of VCI packaging materials. However, they are more or less complicated to deal with in terms of performing them and there is room for improving the informative value of some tests. It is not possible to use them to investigate some boundary conditions which influence VCI protection and its structure. For this reason, an application-oriented research project funded by the BMWI (German Ministry of Economic Affairs as part of the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations - AIF) was set up at the BFSV Institute at the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg. Its aim is to investigate some of these boundary conditions, such as the distance between the VCI carrier material, the relative humidity and the surface to be protected. A test apparatus was developed for this purpose.