The causes of corrosion simply explained

You are probably also familiar with the fact that you once left a tin can and after a few Days an unsightly rust ring has formed, which is not only unsightly, but also difficult to remove is. What causes corrosion and can you avoid it?

With metal, corrosion is called rust

• If you expose ferrous metals to the elements, they will start to rust unless they are protected.
• The iron components react with the air and water and begin to decompose.
• If you look at it from the chemical side, you have iron (Fe), air, so oxygen (O₂) and water (H₂O), which together react to form iron oxide in a chemical reaction.
• You can usually only see the beginnings of corrosion under a microscope. If the rust has already continued, however, you can see the brown, flaky and porous areas with the naked eye.


How can you protect iron from rust?

Iron is a very durable material when it is properly cared for. …

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• On the car you can see that the paint puffs up in some places and unsightly bubbles can be seen. If you press the blister, rust will usually appear.
• Here the subsoil was in some way unprotected, so that water and oxygen could do their work.

This is how you can counteract the causes

• To prevent metal parts from rusting, you should seal them in some way.
• So you can apply a permanent protective layer with varnish. However, if the paint is no longer in perfect order at one point, water and oxygen find their way and corrosion begins.
• You can also use greases, whether as oil or lubricating grease, to protect against rust. Here you also have to check regularly whether all places are well protected.
• Often you can slow down the causes a little, but once the metal has been attacked by corrosion, the rust can hardly be stopped completely.

Since not all metallic objects can be replaced by rustproof stainless steel or other alloys all you can do is try to stand up to the causes of the corrosion and thus give the rust no chance give.