Clean bare steel rusts fast when water sits on it, especially if the rinse is warm, the line stops or the dry-off is slow. Flash rust shows as a light orange or brown haze, often in streaks where water ran. Powder will cover it but adhesion and corrosion resistance suffer. Prevention is fast drying, a proper conversion coating and not leaving parts parked wet.
Line was down 20 minutes with racks in the rinse, now every part has flash rust in the corners.
If the line stops with racks in the washer, pull them through to the dry-off rather than letting them sit wet.
Also heard as
- flash rusting
Related terms
Dry-off oven
The oven after the washer that drives off rinse water before parts reach the powder booth.
Wash
Line slang for the spray pretreatment washer, or for the pass a part makes through it.
Pretreatment
The cleaning and chemical conditioning a part gets before powder, which decides most of its adhesion and corrosion life.
Blast
To strip and roughen a part with abrasive media before coating, or as a noun, the blast room itself.