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PUBLISHER’S LETTER
www.siliconchip.com.au
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD
Production Manager
Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.)
Technical Staff
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
Peter Smith
Ross Tester
Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc, VK2ZLO
Reader Services
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Advertising Enquiries
Leo Simpson
Phone (02) 9979 5644
Fax (02) 9979 6503
Regular Contributors
Brendan Akhurst
Rodney Champness, VK3UG
Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed
Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK
Stan Swan
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2 Silicon Chip
Electronic corrosion
control is a fraud
Among all the email and other correspondence
we receive at SILICON CHIP, there are many common requests which are quite understandable,
especially as they tend to come from readers who
are new to the magazine. But there are others
which we find frustrating because they indicate
that people are still being conned by peddlers of
technical sounding rubbish. Under this heading
come requests for us to do a project for electronic
corrosion control for cars.
A recent email is typical. Here the person quotes
from the glowing testimonial on a website and asks could we do something
similar, especially as there does not appear to be much electronics involved.
In general, the principle of all these schemes is as follows:
“A small pulsed DC power supply and control module about the size of a
pack of cigarettes is the heart of our corrosion proofing systems. The power
supply is all solid state circuitry embedded in electronics grade (UL 94V-0
flame retardant) epoxy encapsulant for long life and durability in any climate.
On automobiles and light trucks it is typically installed in the engine bay or
in the boot where it runs off the 12V from the vehicle battery, drawing less
current than a typical digital clock.
One or more unique “programmed capacitive couplers” which are attached
to the painted metal surface with aircraft-grade adhesive, are charged by the
power supply/control module and function as if they were the positive half
of a capacitor. They are wired to the power supply in parallel (each on individual circuits) and meticulously engineered so that each serves to produce a
measured and specific limited range of capacitance and thus deliver a measured and specific limited range electrostatic charge via capacitive coupling.
These capacitive couplers are vital to the effectiveness of the system and the
utmost care is exercised in their manufacture”.
Well, there you go. They must be good. Such systems frequently appear
to be protected by a patent and they have all been endorsed by “university
tests” or “independent engineers”. Only the patent is never listed and details
of the university or the “independent engineers” are never mentioned. Nor
is there a warranty. Funny that.
I always reply to these emails along the lines that I regard electronic corrosion control as a lot of hogwash and a fraud. How can such a system possibly work? There is no current flow through to the car body and there is no
sacrificial anode (and even if there was, it could not work unless the car body
was immersed in water!).
Furthermore, if such a simple low-cost system was effective, why haven’t
the world’s auto manufacturers all fitted it to their cars? The answer is that
they don’t work and present measures employed by most car manufacturers
are so effective that they typically give a 6-year warranty against paint failure
and perforation corrosion (or words to that effect). In fact, some new cars in
the USA (where they put salt on the roads in winter) come with a 10-year
warranty.
If you want further evidence of fraud, just log onto www.google.com and
type in “RustEvader”. This US company was prosecuted by the Federal Trade
Commission as long ago as 1996 and prevented from promoting its electronic
corrosion protection system. Yet many other companies continue to promote
virtually identical systems. The message is simple. They don’t work. They
can’t work. It’s a con!
Leo Simpson
www.siliconchip.com.au
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