Imagine this: your brand-new, bright, glistening product steps into a chamber. The door closes. Inside, it’s not the day at the spa it expected – instead – it’s a nightmare at the beach. That is Corrosion/Salt Fog Testing..
This testing is basically the same as setting your product outside a seaside condo with no shade, no maintenance, and a hurricane every day… for weeks. Why is this done? To determine if your product can survive in the kind of humid, salty, nightmare that would make even a pelican move inland.
Why We Do It? (Other than because it’s fun)
Because some standards require it and the goal is simple: duplicate years of corrosive exposure in just a few days or weeks. Think of it as time travel, but instead of visiting the Bronze Age, your product is flung into the future, where rust is king.
What do we check?
• That metal components survive the testing without turning into lace.
• That the coating stays on and intact and doesn’t peel off like last week’s sunburn.
• That fasteners remain functional, not fuse together in a salty embrace.
Typical standards that require this testing:
• MIL-STD-810H Method 509.7 – Environmental Engineering Considerations for Defense Electronics
• IEC 60068-2-11 – Environmental testing – Part 2-11: Tests – Test Ka: Salt mist
• ISO 9227 – Corrosion tests in artificial atmospheres — Salt spray tests
• UL 50E – Enclosures for Electrical Equipment, Environmental Considerations
• NEMA 250 – Enclosures for Electrical Equipment (1000 Volts Maximum)
The Test Setup
A typical salt fog chamber resembles a mix between a fridge, a sauna, and a mad scientist’s fish tank. Inside, your product gets showered with a fine mist of saltwater, usually 5% sodium chloride. That’s the same stuff in ocean water — except here, it’s 24/7 and there’s no “low tide.”
Engineers then check the product at intervals. If something is corroding, swelling, cracking, or just generally looking like it’s been rescued from the Titanic… congratulations, you’ve learned something valuable (and probably expensive).
Lessons Learned
Salt fog testing teaches us that:
- Nature is undefeated.
- A good protective coating is worth its weight in gold (or at least stainless steel).
- Just because it survived in the lab doesn’t mean it’ll survive on the Jersey Shore.
Final Thoughts
Salt fog testing is brutal, but it’s also a love letter to durability. By the end, your product will either emerge victorious — battle-scarred but proud — or it’ll be heading back to R&D for a serious armor upgrade.
And hey, at least it got to “visit the beach,” right? Contact Us if you have a product that needs to lounge in the salty air!