Influence of Post-machining Thermal Treatment on the Corrosion Behaviour of Copper

In this paper, the influence of a post-machining thermal treatment (PMTT) on the corrosion behaviour of copper was investigated in a salt fog atmosphere. The corrosion behaviour was affected by the presence of a high density of grain boundaries generated during machining or dislocations formed during PMTT under certain conditions. The obtained results showed that it is possible to find PMTT conditions to cancel changes induced by machining and that the critical factor leading to a sharp increase of the percentage of oxidized surface seems to be the density of dislocations near the machined surface.