4.1 This practice is normally used for stress-corrosion screening for the development of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys containing less than 0.26 % copper. Effects on stress-corrosion resistance due to variables such as composition, thermo-mechanical processing, other fabrication variables, and magnitude of applied stress may be compared.
4.2 For a given mechanical method of stressing, the relative stress-corrosion resistance of the low copper Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys in atmospheric exposure correlates better with performance in boiling 6 % sodium chloride solution than with other accelerated testing media (7-9). In addition, this practice is relatively rapid.
4.3 This practice is not applicable to 2XXX (Al-Cu), 5XXX (Al-Mg), 6XXX (Al-Mg-Si), and the 7XXX (Al-Zn-Mg-Cu) series alloys containing more than 1.2 % copper.
4.3.1 For 7XXX series alloys containing between 0.26 % and 1.2 % copper, there is no general agreement as to whether this practice or Practice G44 correlates better with stress-corrosion resistance in service (5-8, 10).