Corrosion behavior of 2A12 aluminum alloy in neutral salt spray environment with different Al-clad removing processes

In the process of assembling and machining, the aluminum alloy components will directly expose to aggressive environment once Al-clad is destroyed. As such, it is meaningful to investigate the corrosion behavior of 2A12 aluminum alloy in neutral salt spray environment after removing Al-clad coating with different processes. In this work, the corrosion behaviors of the aluminum alloy were evaluated by the changes in morphology, composition, and maximum mean corrosion depth. The results show that the corrosion rate of 2A12 aluminum alloy was very high in the first 24 h, and then decreased with test duration. Among all the Al-clad removing processes, the one at higher temperature (90-100 °C) for shorter time (3-4 min) exhibit the best performance in the presence of inhibitor and sanding. The three possible reasons include effect of inhibitor adsorbing, role of sanding, impact of higher temperature, and shorter time.