Talking about Fashion's Wave——Rusting

In the process of doing mould control, we are often asked by our customers about rust and corrosion, especially in factories where the humidity is high all year round, and when the rainy season comes, the vigilance against rust and corrosion is a hundred thousand times higher. So what is rust and corrosion?

What is rusting?

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Rusting is a natural process that turns metals into more chemically stable oxides. Metals can gradually rust and be damaged by chemical or electrochemical reactions in the environment. The common culprits that trigger rusting reactions are mainly oxidising agents such as oxygen, hydrogen or hydroxide. Rust is the most familiar product of rusting, i.e. the oxides of iron.

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Many structural alloys will rust once they come into contact with moisture in the air. For many metals, the risk of rusting increases once the relative humidity reaches 60%. Therefore, absolute humidity, temperature and contact time are very important for corrosion protection. In addition, when cold metals encounter warm air with high relative humidity, condensation can adhere directly to the metal surface, accelerating the rusting process and increasing the risk of corrosion.

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High humidity is a constant corrosion risk and rust problems can add significantly to the cost of the supply chain. It includes: the cost of various rusting protection solutions; the additional cost, time and environmental impact of reworking or even scrapping metal parts if solutions are missing or rusting protection is ineffective. Some of these costs must be reduced/eliminated, saving time and reducing the environmental burden in order to ensure that the supply chain can operate consistently and cost-effectively in the long term.

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How to stop rusting?

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i.              Use of air transport. Air transport can reduce transit time, although it is costly and not environmentally sustainable.

ii.              Spraying, lubricating or otherwise treating with rust inhibiting oils. Isolation treatments on metal surfaces can protect the metal from rust and corrosion. However, surface protection is costly and often requires cleaning off grease before the next step in the manufacturing process can begin.

iii.              VCI plastic packaging. This is a common packaging method using a special plastic covering, also known as VCI technology (Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor). However, VCI is expensive, uses a lot of plastic and is not a sustainable method of preventing rusting of metals. More importantly, VCI is not as effective as it could be in preventing rust under certain conditions of transport.

iv.              Use desiccants. Desiccants reduce the amount of moisture in the surrounding air, essentially eliminating the humidity on which corrosion problems depend. Desiccants are also the simplest, most cost effective and environmentally friendly solution compared to the above methods.