The rust preventive oil at the end of the line is usually doing its job. The parts do not rust. What it also does is drip off the rack onto the floor, drift as a mist onto every machine within twenty feet, put VOCs in the air, and hand the next operation a part that has to be degreased before it can be assembled or painted. The safety committee sees a slip hazard. The environmental manager sees a permit line. The customer sees an oily part. Nobody wants to change it because the two-year protection requirement is being met.
A water-based VpCI rust preventative meets the same two-year requirement with a dry, nearly invisible film. Three Cortec case histories show what that switch looked like: an Indiana parts maker that cut rust preventative cost 30 percent and ended its slip hazard, a UK casting shop that built a de-rust and preservation line around a BioCorr dip tank, and a European machinery builder whose BioCorr-treated cylinders sat outdoors for three months without a mark.
Two years of protection, 30 percent less cost, no oil on the floor
Cortec Case History #363 (2009) describes an OEM parts manufacturer in Frankfort, Indiana. Its customers required a minimum of two years of protection from any rust preventative, and the oil-based product in use delivered that. The problems were everything else: a high VOC content, oil dripping off parts and creating a slip hazard on the production floor, and a spray application that put an oil mist on the inside of every machine, which was hard to clean.
BioCorr was tested on the production lines and outperformed the oil. After the plant’s own customer approved it, BioCorr went into the hub heat-treat process first and then replaced the oil on every production line. The result was the same two-year protection, a 30 percent reduction in rust preventative cost, and the safety problems gone. BioCorr is ready to use, water-based, VOC free and dries to a film that does not attract dirt, so the spray mist that clung to the machines was replaced by something that simply dried.
| Oil-based RP | BioCorr | |
|---|---|---|
| Protection term required | 2 years | 2 years |
| VOC | High | None |
| Drips and floor hazard | Yes | Dry film |
| Spray mist on machines | Yes | Eliminated |
| Product cost | Baseline | 30 percent lower |
A de-rust and preservation line built on a dip tank
Cortec Case History #520 (2016) is a UK castings manufacturer whose machined, washed and stored parts had rusted badly before shipment. Hundreds of parts needed to be de-rusted and protected, and the process had to run on equipment already in the factory. The shop built a five-stage line: VpCI-422 rust remover sprayed in a top-loading washer at ambient temperature, a neutralizing wash with a VpCI alkaline cleaner at 10 percent and 70 °C in the second washer, a dip in BioCorr on a purpose-built tank and drying table for up to 24 months of protection, repacking on pallets in VpCI packaging with desiccant, and a written procedure with operator training. The shop reported no further rusty parts in storage or transit and standardized the process across the group. We covered the wash side of this case in our parts-washer concentration post; the point here is that the preservation step was a BioCorr dip, not an oil.
Three months outdoors on a dry film
Cortec Case History #778 (2022) is the harshest test of the three. A Croatian machinery builder supplies steel cylinders for tire-making equipment to a U.S. customer. The customer required dry preservation for the ocean crossing, and the plant is not allowed to use MEK or any other solvent in production, so a solvent-borne temporary coating was out. After machining, the cylinders were coated with green-tinted BioCorr, the tint so an inspector can see at a glance which parts were treated, and sent to the warehouse.
Before the pack-out method was accepted, it was tested. A BioCorr-coated cylinder went on a wooden pallet with a 25 by 25 centimeter BioPad emitter on the body, wrapped in 3 mil (80 micron) VpCI-126 film, and was left outdoors from April 15 to July 26, 2022. The system is rated for indoor storage and a shipment, not for weather, yet after three months outside there was no corrosion. The customer accepted the method and the relationship continued.
How to do this in your plant
- Write down what the oil is costing you beyond the drum: floor cleanup, degreasing at the next operation, mist on machines, VOC reporting. That is the number the 30 percent figure in #363 was measured against.
- Start with a clean, dry part. BioCorr is applied to SSPC-SP-1 clean metal, and a part straight out of a Build-All or Magido washer running VpCI-414 or VpCI-416 is the ideal feed. Do not put it over oil.
- Charge a dip tank or spray pot with BioCorr straight from the pail. No dilution, no heat. Agitate the tank daily and keep it covered; contamination breaks the emulsion.
- Dip or spray, drain, and dry on a rack or table. The film is dry and nearly invisible, so parts can be handled, stacked and in most cases assembled or painted with no cleaning step. Rated up to two years indoors.
- Use the green-tinted grade if operators or inspectors need to see coverage, as the cylinder plant did.
- If parts ship or sit longer, add packaging: a BioPad against the part and a VpCI-126 bag around it, which is the recipe that survived three months outside in #778.
- If you would rather dilute a concentrate and dial the term, VpCI-377 is the alternative: 2 to 5 percent for about a year, 10 to 20 percent for more than two, dry film, paint-over. Our concentration testing guide shows how to check the bath.
Which Cortec products
- BioCorr, 5-gallon pail: ready-to-use dip or spray after washing; up to two years indoors, 64 percent biobased, VOC free.
- BioCorr, 55-gallon drum: for a dedicated dip tank or a washer rinse stage on a production line.
- BioCorr Rust Preventative: the same product on our original listing.
- BioCorr Green: tinted for coverage inspection, otherwise identical.
- VpCI-377: the water-based concentrate when you want to set the term by dilution; indoor storage only.
We stock BioCorr in pails and drums, BioCorr Green, VpCI-377 and the BioPad and VpCI-126 packaging in Elmhurst, Illinois. If you want to see what a dry-film rust preventative does on your parts, contact us for a sample pail; we can run a dip trial on a basket of your parts and put them beside the oiled ones for a few weeks.
Sources: Cortec Case History #363 (2009), Cortec Case History #520 (2016), Cortec Case History #778 (2022); Cortec product data sheets for BioCorr, VpCI-377, BioPad and VpCI-126.
