Industrial corrosion expertise – diagnostics & analysis
Since 2002, the French Corrosion Institute has supported industry in understanding, preventing, and controlling corrosion. Our team of PhDs, engineers, and technicians specialized in materials science, metallurgy, chemistry, and electrochemistry leverages one of the most comprehensive testing and analysis capabilities in Europe to address challenges related to durability, reliability, and regulatory compliance of your equipment and products.
R&D expertise in corrosion dedicated to the industry
Corrosion represents a significant cost for global industry—premature failures, unplanned shutdowns, regulatory non-compliance, and performance losses. In response to these challenges, our teams operate at every stage of the lifecycle of your materials and equipment: from material selection and qualification during the development phase to in-service failure analysis.
Our approach is based on three complementary pillars: accelerated corrosion testing in the laboratory, which enables rapid prediction of long-term material behavior in aggressive environments; exposure under real-world conditions, combined with measurements of corrosivity and/or climatic conditions; and advanced characterization analyses, which allow the identification and understanding of degradation mechanisms at all relevant scales. This combination of testing and analysis is the key to delivering corrosion expertise that is both practical and actionable for your technical decision-making.
With more than 300 publications and 190 R&D reports in the fields of corrosion and anticorrosion protection, and a network of 83 industrial members within the ARCOR association, the French Corrosion Institute has a unique body of experience to address the most demanding challenges.
Our corrosion testing and analysis capabilities
The French Corrosion Institute has one of the most comprehensive testing infrastructures in Europe, enabling accurate reproduction of industrial corrosive environments—from atmospheric conditions to the most severe environments. Each testing program is defined in close collaboration with your technical teams to closely match your real operating constraints and the requirements of your clients or regulatory bodies.
Testing in natural seawater and marine environments
Our two marine test stations supplied with Atlantic seawater enable immersion, tidal zone, and splash zone testing at all scales—from laboratory coupons to full-scale equipment. Environmental parameters (temperature from 4 °C to 90 °C, flow rate, dissolved oxygen, chlorination) are continuously controlled. Electrochemical monitoring can reach up to 500 channels with remote data acquisition. These facilities cover, in particular, the aging of coatings and elastomers in seawater, cathodic disbondment testing according to ISO 15711 and ISO 21809, as well as full-scale cathodic protection through the deployment of mooring lines.
→ Learn more about our Marine Test Stations and Seawater Laboratory
Corrosion in soils
Our soil laboratory is a facility dedicated to studying the performance of buried pipelines and structures. It enables testing in natural or synthetic soils with controlled moisture content, resistivity, chlorides, sulfates, and microbiological activity. Tests notably cover differential aeration corrosion, cathodic disbondment in soils, stray currents, and microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). Finite element modeling (COMSOL Multiphysics) complements these tests to simulate current and potential distribution under real conditions.
→ Learn more about our Soil Laboratory
Laboratory accelerated corrosion tests
Our fleet of climate chambers covers all standard and custom configurations required to validate the performance of materials and anticorrosion coatings in a reduced timeframe, including: cyclic corrosion testing (CCT/ACT) according to VDA 233-102, ISO 11997-3, ISO 12944-6/9, Renault ECC1; neutral or acidic salt spray (NSS/AASS/CASS) according to ISO 9227 and ASTM B117; accelerated UV aging according to ISO 4892-3 and ASTM G154; combined climatic testing from −40 °C to +180 °C. Our 12,000-liter walk-in chamber enables full-scale testing of large components, complete assemblies, and entire structures.
→ Learn more about our climatic and accelerated corrosion testing chambers
Severe environments: hydrogen, ammonia, H₂S, high pressure, and high temperature
Certain industrial applications—oil & gas, chemicals, and low-carbon energy—expose materials to toxic, explosive, or highly corrosive fluids under extreme pressure and temperature conditions. Our highly secure facilities enable the qualification of your materials in these critical environments: high-pressure hydrogen, liquid ammonia, supercritical CO₂, H₂S and sour service, and high temperatures. These tests make it possible, in particular, to assess resistance to stress corrosion cracking (SSC/HIC), hydrogen embrittlement, and stress corrosion under conditions representative of real service, in accordance with NACE TM0177, NACE TM0284, and ISO 15156 standards.
→ Learn more about our testing in severe environments
Natural exposure: seawater immersion, soil burial, and natural atmospheres
Beyond laboratory testing, the French Corrosion Institute operates a range of sites and exposure systems under natural conditions to assess the long-term behavior of materials and coatings in real, non-simulated environments. These natural exposure tests provide an essential benchmark for validating correlations with accelerated testing, feeding lifetime prediction models, and meeting the most demanding qualification requirements.
Immersion in deep sea
Instrumented mooring lines are deployed in ocean environments at varying depths, enabling the exposure of test specimens, coating systems, or assemblies to fully immersed corrosion under conditions of pressure, temperature, dissolved oxygen content, and biological activity representative of deep-sea environments. These exposures are particularly relevant for offshore applications (pipelines, umbilicals, etc.) and provide critical data for the marine energies of the future.
→ Learn more about our natural seawater exposure capabilities
Soil burial
Soil burial sites enable the exposure of materials and coatings under controlled natural soil conditions or representative industrial environments, with in situ monitoring of electrochemical parameters (corrosion potential, corrosion rate, cathodic protection currents). These exposure tests are carried out to qualify the performance of buried pipelines, sacrificial anodes, and cathodic protection systems in terrestrial environments.
→ Learn more about our soil exposure capabilities
Natural exposure under atmospheric conditions
Our atmospheric exposure sites cover a range of corrosivity categories from C2 (low corrosivity, rural) to CX (extreme corrosivity) according to ISO 9223 classification. The Brest site, in an Atlantic marine environment, offers particularly severe conditions (C4–C5) for natural aging tests in marine atmospheres. These exposures enable the qualification of anticorrosion coatings in accordance with ISO 12944-6, the development of long-term aging databases, and the validation of accelerated test results against actual in-service behavior.
→ Learn more about our exposure sites
Advanced characterization: understanding corrosion mechanisms
Identifying the nature and causes of degradation is often just as important as measuring it. Our analytical platform brings together all the equipment required to characterize corrosion and damage at every scale, from surface phenomena to interfaces and internal structures.
Spectroscopy and surface analysis
Raman spectroscopy (Xplora Plus) enables non-destructive identification of chemical species on surfaces or cross-sections, with 2D mapping capabilities. The non-contact interferometric profilometer (Wyko NT1100) provides 3D surface topography, roughness measurements, and precise quantification of pitting in terms of depth, volume, and density. The Scanning Kelvin Probe (SKP) maps surface potentials without contact, making it possible to visualize underlying coating delamination and atmospheric corrosion phenomena under thin electrolyte films.
Electrochemical techniques
Electrochemical methods are essential for quantifying corrosion kinetics and understanding degradation mechanisms at the interface scale. Our potentiostats and galvanostats enable the full range of steady-state and dynamic techniques: polarization curves, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), galvanic coupling measurements, open circuit potential monitoring, and cyclic polarization for pitting studies. Rotating disk electrodes (RDE) and rotating cylinder electrodes (RCE) are used to study kinetics under hydrodynamic conditions. The Avesta cell is employed to determine critical pitting and crevice corrosion temperatures of stainless steels and corrosion-resistant alloys (CRA). These tests are conducted both in the laboratory and in natural seawater, soils, or process environments.
→ Discover our full range of characterization tools
Diverse industrial sectors, a shared expertise
Corrosion does not recognize sector boundaries. The French Corrosion Institute supports industry players across a wide range of fields, all facing the need to control material degradation in often aggressive environments:
- The automotive industry, for validating anticorrosion systems in accordance with OEM standards (Renault, Volvo, Scania, etc.) and developing predictive tests and models for coating and metal degradation under service conditions.
- Aerospace, for the evaluation of aluminum alloys, stainless steels, and surface treatments in line with Airbus, Boeing, and military standards.
- The oil and gas industry, for the qualification of materials in high-pressure/high-temperature environments and corrosive media containing acids or H₂S.
- Offshore and onshore infrastructure, for cathodic protection, coating performance, and corrosion fatigue of materials and structures under marine or soil conditions.
- Low-carbon energy sectors, for the qualification of materials in hydrogen, ammonia, supercritical CO₂, nuclear environments, and electrolyzer conditions.
- The chemical and process industries, for assessing material–fluid compatibility and diagnosing corrosion on operating installations.
- The water industry, for biocorrosion (MIC) analysis and qualification of materials in contact with drinking water or effluents.
- The building sector, for the qualification of pre-painted products and façades through natural exposure and accelerated testing.
- The healthcare and medical device sector, for evaluating corrosion resistance of implants and surgical instruments in simulated physiological environments.
→ View all our areas of expertise
Discover some of our flagship studies as well:
Why choose the French Corrosion Institute?
24 years of experience in corrosion—find all our references here. Since our establishment in Brest in 2002, corrosion and anticorrosion protection have been the core focus of our activities. This specialization ensures a depth of expertise that a generalist laboratory cannot match.
A team of specialists. Our 70 employees are PhDs and engineers in materials science, metallurgy, chemistry, and electrochemistry, supported by a multidisciplinary technical team responsible for test execution and laboratory analysis. Each project is handled by experts whose academic background and daily work are dedicated to corrosion.
One of the most comprehensive testing capabilities in Europe. Multi-volume climate chambers, a 12 m³ walk-in chamber, a natural seawater laboratory, high-pressure test rigs for severe environments, and advanced electrochemical and analytical platforms—the French Corrosion Institute offers an infrastructure rarely found within a single private and independent organization.
Responsiveness and industrial proximity. Our three sites (Brest, Saint-Étienne, Lyon) and our industry-oriented organization enable us to respond quickly to your needs, whether for a one-off test request, a multi-year R&D program, or urgent failure analysis.
A unique industrial network: ARCOR. The ARCOR association brings together 83 industrial partners around collaborative research projects in corrosion. It provides a unique ecosystem for knowledge sharing, resource pooling, and anticipation of common challenges—accessible to all our partners.
Certifications and accreditations. Our sites are certified ISO 9001 (Brest since 2013, Saint-Étienne since 2001), ISO 45001 (Saint-Étienne), and MASE (Lyon since 2017). The Brest site also benefits from specific accreditations from automotive and aerospace OEMs.
Let’s discuss your project
Are you facing a corrosion issue, need to qualify a material or coating, planning to launch an anticorrosion R\&D program, or responding to a regulatory requirement? Our experts are available to work with you in defining the most suitable approach—whether it involves standard testing, a tailored protocol, or a research partnership.