Corrosion is a natural process that acts as a threat to the lifespan of devices and equipment. It takes extensive effort to keep corrosion at bay in order to prolong the durability of devices. Especially in the industrial atmosphere or field setup, devices are extremely vulnerable due to the harsh and chemical conditions. Wavesys presents the Corrosion Protection series to resolve these issues. The series not only improves the corrosive tolerance of electronic devices but prevent corrosion too. This will greatly help the users reduce their replacement costs.
Environments That Cause Corrosion
Geothermal fields, chemical plants, power plants and such other industrial setups, marine establishments and some other industries usually have numerous corrosive elements like particles of sea mist, sulphur and chloride forms etc. The electronic devices exposed to one or more of such corrosive elements instantly fall under high risk of corrosion.When field equipment operates in external surroundings such as these, the moisture and oxygen, the sulphurous acid and chlorides in the burning fossil fuels trigger corrosion on metal surfaces. In this context, institutions such as the ISA (International Society of Automation) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization) have formed standards such as the ISA Standard 71.04 and ISO 9223 to help understand and classify potential corrosive environments.
ISA Standard 71.04
The ISA Standard 71.04 indicates the corrosion severity using 4 categories of airborne contaminants, i.e., liquids, solids, gases, and biological influences.
| Corrosivity Level | Typical Enviroment |
|---|---|
| G1 Mild | Corrosion is not a factor in determining equipment reliability. |
| G2 Moderate | Effects of corrosion measurable and may be a factor in determining equipment reliability |
| G3 Harsh | High probability that corrosive attacks will occur. The harsh level should promte further evalution and result in enviroment controls or specially designed and packaged equipment. |
| Gx Severe | ONLY specially designed and packaged equipment would be expexted to survive. |
ISO 9223
ISO 9223 uses time of dampness, categories of pollutants (sulfur dioxide, and airborne chlorides) as bases to analyse the extent of corrosivity.Manufactures or other parties can use these inferences and determine what can harm their equipment, and to what extent. This will help in avoiding contamination of the equipment thereby cutting losses and maintenance costs.
| Corrosivity Level | Typical Enviroment |
|---|---|
| C1 Very low | Dry Indoor |
| C2 low | Arid/Urban Inland |
| C3 Medium | Coastal/ Industrial |
| C4 High | Calm Sea-Shore |
| C5 Very High | Surf Sea-Shore |
| Cx Extreme | Occen/off-Shore |
Approval
The Wavesys Corrosion Protection Series meets the Ingress Protection (IP) and conformal coating standards that are set to protect devices against corrosive elements in the atmosphere. The products also undergo salt spray and gas corrosion tests in addition to complying with various other corrosion protection and quality standards.
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- Salt Spray Test: IEC 60068-2-11, IEC 60068-2-52.
- Gas Corrosion Test: IEC 60068-2-60
- Conformal Coating: MIL‐I‐46058C, IPC-CC-830B, IEC 61086-2 (Class 2), UL 94(V-0), UL 746E
- Corrosive environment: ANSI/ISA-71.04 (G3-Harsh, GX-Severe), ISO 9223 (C5-Very High, CX-Extreme)