TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION

( internal )
Date: 10.05.2004

Subject Corrosion resistance of retaining rings

Problem In the context of a planned supplier change to the Cirteq Company we
learned that the retaining rings do not meet the corrosion resistance
requirement which, acc. to JED-371 (phosphating and oiling), amounts
to 96h salt spray test without traces of rust. The resistance of the series
parts, however, amounts to approx. 20h, depending on the supplier and
the delivery. Thus, the parts do not meet the requirements defined in
JED-371, but they do meet the requirements defined in the DIN Stan-
dards 471 and 472 respectively. These standards demand corrosion
resistance to be ensured in 8h of salt spray test.

Costs Special treatments at the supplier's, extended quality testing and con-
Logistics siderably higher costs would be required to ensure a corrosion resis-
Quality tance exceeding the DIN standards. Moreover, logistic and quality prob-
lems have to be expected due to the global application and purchasing
of the parts.

Field situation Depending on the duration and conditions of usage, some old devices
show considerable corrosion attack on the retaining rings located on the
outside. This is particularly the case if the devices have not been over-
painted. Since OE manufacturers tend to eliminate the varnishing proc-
ess for the devices and spares devices in the case of repair do not re-
ceive any painting anyhow, corrosion would probably appear more fre-
quently in the future.

Decisions • For new designs, the retaining rings provided with standard
phosphating are no longer allowed to be used in the external
parts of the devices if these devices are to be mounted on the
external of vehicles and might be exposed to severe corrosive
conditions!
• For these external applications, the retaining rings have to be
provided with the improved surface protection ensured by me-
chanical zinc-coating (JED-731-6).
• For existing series devices, appropriate action has to be taken
(e.g. change to JED-731-6 as surface protection) if any failure of
the retaining ring might result in vehicle safety risks!
• Adapted to the DIN standards for retaining rings, a new version JED-
371-1 has been made which complies with the achieved corrosion
resistance.
• The retaining-ring documents will be changed; JED-371 will be re-
placed by JED-371-1.

Further Contact:
information Georg Ehmen (Tel. 2599), Dr. Hans Voß (Tel. 1627),
Karl-Heinz Deike (Tel. 1635)


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