Electrolytic Plasma Cleaning of Advanced High Strength Steels

Abstract

The most commonly used material in the automotive industry is steel. Steel used in making Body-In-White (BIW) for cars are broadly classified as Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS). These AHSS are produced by a well-defined alloying and specific annealing procedure. However, external oxidation of the constituent alloying elements from the steel is observed the annealing step . This selective oxidation of alloying elements on the steel surface affects the adhesion of the Zinc to the steel which is essential for corrosion protection. The main goals of this research work were to define the optimal parametric windows for the Electrolytic Plasma Cleaning technique to form a plasma capable of cleaning a steel surface by removing external oxides formed during the annealing process. Electrolytic Plasma Cleaning uses the traditional electrochemical cell that consists of an anode, a cathode, an external potential and an electrolyte but at higher input potentials. An experimental setup was developed with the aim of finding the ideal working parameters, establishing the groundwork for future large-scale experimentation.