Corrosion sensor

A corrosion sensor for detecting the action of corrosive media on a metallic component when the sensor is mounted in the vicinity of the metallic component in use, the sensor comprising:

• an electrically conducting corrodible sensor element mounted on a non-conducting substrate,
• the sensor element being covered with a protective coating adapted to protect the sensor element from corrosive media,
• the protective coating defining a temporary feature extending across the sensor element designed to permit attack on the sensor element by corrosive media after a predetermined period of time,
• wherein the sensor element includes a pair of spaced tracks extending generally in a longitudinal direction and a series of corrodible tracks, each corrodible track extending generally in a lateral direction and forming an electrical connection between the spaced tracks,
• wherein the temporary feature extends longitudinally, in the space between the pair of tracks, across a plurality of the corrodible tracks whereby to permit the said attack on a number of the corrodible tracks after the predetermined period of time, and
• wherein the temporary feature terminates in the longitudinal direction at a track which does not form an electrical connection between the spaced tracks.

A corrosion sensor for detecting the action of corrosive media on a metallic component when the sensor is mounted in the vicinity of the metallic component in use, the sensor comprising:

• an electrically conducting corrodible sensor element mounted on a non-conducting substrate,
• the sensor element being covered with a protective coating adapted to protect the sensor element from corrosive media,
• the protective coating defining a temporary feature extending across the sensor element designed to permit attack on the sensor element by corrosive media after a predetermined period of time,
• wherein the sensor element includes a pair of spaced tracks extending generally in a longitudinal direction and a series of corrodible tracks, each corrodible track extending generally in a lateral direction and forming an electrical connection between the spaced tracks,
• wherein the spaced tracks each define discontinuities along their length at positions staggered from the discontinuities in the opposed spaced track, whereby to direct electrical current longitudinally along the sensor element in a serpentine manner, traversing between the spaced tracks along defined numbers of corrodible tracks and thereby to set electrical resistance of the sensor element at a defined level.