CORROSION DAMAGE IN THE CASSAVA JUICE MEDIUM ON HEAT TREATED MILD STEEL AND CHROMIUM-PLATED MILD STEEL

Abstract

Plain carbon steel is the cheapest and most readily available metal in Nigeria for agri-tech processing equipment. It is used for its low cost and ease of access. They are, however, vulnerable to corrosion due to their use in a corrosive medium, such as fluid extracted from cassava tubers. The corrosion resistance of heat-treated mild steel and Chromium-plated mild steels used as tools in the cassava processing environment was investigated in this study. The untimely failure of this material while in service is caused by malignant ions found in food and raw farm products, which attack the steel components, causing gradual failure of the processing machinery. According to the findings of this study, annealed mild steel materials, whether coated or uncoated, are preferred. The study results revealed that the control annealed mild steel sample has the lowest corrosion rate of 0.027 mm/yr, while the corrosion rates of the heat-treated hardened, normalized, and tempered samples increase by 0.054, 0.067, and 0.10 mm/yr, respectively. The effect of coating time on the amount of chromium deposition was reflected in chromium-plated heat-treated samples that were heat-treated for 10 to 20 minutes at 5 minutes intervals. The corrosion rate was lowest in annealed chromium-plated samples, with an average grain size of 118.46 um and a corrosion rate of 0.04 mm/yr. According to the findings of this study, annealed mild steel materials, whether coated or uncoated, are preferable for use in the cassava processing operation.

Keywords

• agric-tech-processing
• annealed
• corrosion
• heat-treated
• steel