Effect of Corrosion Resistant Films Fabricated on an Al-Mg-Si Alloy Using Only Steam on Fatigue Life

The steam coating process can improve the corrosion resistance of aluminum alloys by forming a two-layered structured AlO(OH) film on the substrate. In the present study, the influence of the AlO(OH) film formation and the surface morphology on fatigue life was investigated by fabricating the AlO(OH) film with various surface morphologies by the steam coating process. As a result, the surface crystal size and the thickness of AlO(OH) films increased monotonically by increasing the treatment temperature of the steam coating process. Despite the variation of film surface and thickness, it was found that the presence or absence of AlO(OH) films and the surface morphology and thickness of the films do not significantly deteriorate fatigue life. In addition, these results suggested that the surface morphology of the AlO(OH) film has little influence on fatigue life and that the steam coating process is less likely to reduce fatigue life compared to the other surface treatments.