In coastal and offshore environments, corrosion protection and performance are critical to items such as fasteners, bolts, threads, and more. Not only is low friction important for these applications, but so is corrosion protection. Identifying that Cerakote is an ideal replacement or alternative to PTFE coatings, we decided to put our product to the test against the other industry standard coatings.

Cerakote® E-100 Blackout coating was tested for head-to-head corrosion resistance against Teflon® Black 958G, Teflon® Metallic Black 420G, and Xylan® 142X coatings, used in marine applications, to prevent corrosion. All coatings were applied to plain steel bolts and zinc plated nuts to increase galvanic corrosion rate.

The analysis was conducted in a Q-Fog salt chamber in accordance with ASTM B117, and evaluated using ASTM D610 for degree of corrosion. All coatings were applied to bolts and hex nuts commonly used in industrial marine environments. Cerakote’s standard for corrosion failure is rust grade 5-G, 3% rusted.

Teflon® Metallic at 24 hours.

ANALYSIS AT 48 HOURS

At 48 hours into the analysis, both grades of Teflon® had surpassed the 3% failure standard on the body of the bolts. Teflon® bolts were pulled from the chamber at 640 hours with 100% corrosion.

RESULTS AT 530 HOURS

The Xylan® bolts reached the 3% failure standard at 530 hours in the chamber. These samples were removed from the chamber at 1,871 hours with approximately 60% corrosion.

Xylan® bolts at 530 hours.

Cerakote Blackout at 3,963 hours

3,963 HOUR COMPARISON

By contrast, at 3,963 hours the Cerakote Blackout bolts had not reached the failure standard.

FINAL RESULTS

The test was concluded at 4,008 hours as Cerakote Blackout had still not reached the 3% failure standard. Analysis of the data derived Cerakote Blackout provided a 99% improvement over both Teflon®, and an 87% improvement over Xylan® in corrosion resistance.