The paper provides technical and historical perspective considered in creating the recently
published NACE standard test method TM0208-2008 for rapid qualitative evaluation to
determine the presence of Vapor Inhibiting Ability (VIA) for corrosion protection of ferrous
metal surfaces (VIA-F). The standard includes improvements in repeatability of outcomes and
criteria for judging and reporting outcomes. An optional test method is included to judge
possible confounding of the VIA effect with partial water absorption (desiccant) effects of some
Volatile Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) materials. The paper also provides considerations for
creating one or more test methods to determine VIA with non-ferrous metals (VIA-NF),
including consideration of “witness” metal specimens, atmospheric contaminants and
appropriate rapid qualitative test methods for them.
Keywords: atmosphere, corrosion, inhibitor, volatile, vapor, test method, ferrous, non-ferrous, VCI,
VPI, VPCI