Industry-leading testing for maximum assurance
Posted on Jan 08, 2025At the Anochrome Group we understand quality and reliability of your parts is of utmost importance. You need to know, with certainty, how long each fastener, bolt, hinge or rivet will last in the environment in which it is being used – whether that’s under a car bonnet, within a hardworking industrial machine, or in any other of the many sectors we support.
That’s why we are committed to utilising industry-leading testing facilities across all our sites.
Coupled with the extraordinary knowledge of our people, we are able to say with authority which coating and finish is required to meet the demands of your part.
Our primary testing facilities are:
Neutral salt spray
We have four salt spray cabinets spread across the UK sites to carry out our salt spray testing. All these cabinets are run according to the specific requirements within BS EN ISO 9227, the worldwide recognised specification for salt spray testing.
Salt spray testing is an accelerated corrosion test method that exposes metallic and non-metallic materials to a highly corrosive environment over an extended period of time.
A sodium chloride solution is atomised within a sealed chamber to create a saltwater mist, which speeds up the corrosion of the materials being tested.
Our experienced engineers inspect the components on test at regular intervals and diligently record the results, noting at what point the coating has perished.
Once our salt spray tests have been completed, we use this information to verify our certificate of conformities, ensuring components have met the required testing hours within the required specification. Laboratory certs can also be issued at request of the customer with a more detailed report given for specific components or finishes.
Cyclic corrosion chamber
We believe we are the only UK business in our sector to have a cyclic corrosion chamber on-site, allowing for advanced testing to take place quickly and cost-effectively.
Situated at our Walsall site, the Atmosfar Lite chamber from Ascott Analytical has the ability not only to run various preprogrammed tests, but also the function for new tests to be written and programmed into the machine by our technical team.
A cyclic corrosion test chamber not only exposes parts to salt spray over a long period of time, but also assesses their ability to cope in a variety of other controlled climates, including variable temperature and humidity as per OEM specifications.
As with traditional salt spray tests, the machine creates an accelerated simulation of real-life conditions to accurately predict life expectancy. As the name suggests, the machine puts the parts through their paces on a repetitive cycle of moisture and dry conditions with adjustable corrosive parameters.
Coefficient of friction and torque testing
Having the means to measure and monitor plating/coating system performance is a vital feature for any job coater. WEP, part of the Anochrome Group, has invested in the testing technology to measure the coefficient of friction for the vast variety of plating/coating solutions we can offer.
Fastener technology in today’s world is an important feature for any design/application engineer. Bolted joints are used in numerous applications and a lot are expected to perform within safety critical application environments.
As industries look for increasingly efficient, cost-effective joint solutions, understanding the mechanics of joint design is a vital tool for any fastener engineer. It’s key to fully grasp the relationship between applied torque in order to achieve the desired clamp load for the joint to work effectively.
Measuring and controlling applied torque is commonly used in any joint tightening strategy. However, several factors exist within a joint design, one of them being friction levels between surfaces.
Approximately 10% of applied torque goes into creating a clamp load, the remaining force is used to overcome friction, between the thread interface and mating surfaces. It follows that controlling friction will provide a key factor in achieving a consistent clamp load.
Many zinc flake coating materials now contain lubricant elements within their chemistry that provides a controlled coefficient of friction range. The additional lubricant chemistry can be present in zinc flake base coats or within various topcoat options that can offer a variety of specified coefficient of friction ranges.
Topcoat materials with controlled coefficient properties are also available for electroplated finishes or as standalone lubricants.
Our ability to measure the coefficient of friction for all our solutions provides the confidence to our customer base that the services we offer will perform to designed parameters.
These testing facilities can be utilised across all businesses within the Anochrome Group: Anochrome Ltd, Wolverhampton Electro Plating, Inlex Locking, Anochrome Technologies, Anocote Czech Republic and Anocote Polska.
Get in touch today to see how we could help your business.