It's difficult to compare a newer car to an older car in terms of rust protection. They have gotten much better in the last few year of preventing rust. I have a 4 year old Mazda with no rust on it whatsover and I'm too lazy to rust proof any of my cars. I assume it's a combiniation of metals, metal treatment, painting techniques, and doing a better job of protecting trouble spots like screw holes or bolt locations.

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Mark Higgins

 

and now for something completely different :shock:
ancient rust proofing , still going strong after sixteen centuries.


Experts at the Indian Instituteof Technology have resolved the mystery behind the 1,600-year-old iron pillar in Delhi, which has never corroded despite the capital's harsh weather.

Metallurgists at Kanpur IIT have discovered that a thin layer of "misawite", a compound of iron, oxygen and hydrogen, has protected the cast iron pillar from rust.

The protective film took form within three years after erection of the pillar and has been growing ever so slowly since then. After 1,600 years, the film has grown just one-twentieth of a millimeter thick, according to R. Balasubramaniam of the IIT.

In a report published in the journal Current Science Balasubramanian says, the protective film was formed catalytically by the presence of high amounts of phosphorous in the iron—as much as one per cent against less than 0.05 per cent in today's iron.

The high phosphorous content is a result of the unique iron-making process practiced by ancient Indians, who reduced iron ore into steel in one step by mixing it with charcoal.

Modern blast furnaces, on the other hand, use limestone in place of charcoal yielding molten slag and pig iron that is later converted into steel. In the modern process most phosphorous is carried away by the slag.

The pillar—over seven metres high and weighing more than six tonnes—was erected by Kumara Gupta of Gupta dynasty that ruled northern India in AD 320-540.

Stating that the pillar is "a living testimony to the skill of metallurgists of ancient India", Balasubramaniam said the "kinetic scheme" that his group developed for predicting growth of the protective film may be useful for modeling long-term corrosion behaviour of containers for nuclear storage applications.

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It may seem like a good idea at the time but.. never stir your cold coffee with a soldering iron.

 

Okay, NOW you have to tell us how to build a hi-phos iron furnace!

 

Why kind of car did you buy?

 

1. The CounterAct system from Australia does seem to be working well in Canada (August 2008).
2. It IS true that an electrolyte must be present for this electronic corrosion control system approach to work properly. On a regular car, this electrolyte is, in fact, present. Otherwise, there would be no rust at all. The car does not have to be immersed in electrolyte, especially with the 440 VAC positive square wave systems (at 30 volts DC-positive offset) with the capacitive paint coupling attachement pad. The reason is, that locally effective electrolytic cells are set up, so anytime and at any place on the car body, whenever water or weak exhaust-gas acids (the electrolyte) is present, the cathodic protection is taking place and protecting your car.
3. Regarding the copper pipes and pin-holing: Yes, the AC-curent system that winds some insulated wire around the copper pipe(where it enters the house) does work perfectly. I have seen it do so in a very bad pin-holing region in ingersoll, Ontario. Everyone has put one of these systems on, and they work mysteriously, but they do work well. Zero pinholing now.

 

Phosphate treatment of steel is a widely accepted method to provide rust protection. A common name for it is Parkerizing.

John

 

Well hell, they've been Parkerizing gun finishes for years. Glock even Parkerizes their finishes after their supposedly magic Tenifer process.

 

Why use a battery when you could just buy a block of magnesium and put it into contact with the material as a sacrificial anode? Smaller, cheaper, lasts longer. I'm not even sure how batteries would work current needs to travel in a loop so it seems to me you would just be shorting the battery across the metal part.

EDIT: I see somebody mentioned capacitve coupling. I can see how that would work, and be better than just using a large resistor to limit current.

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Tanaka Sensei (avatar) says: Please spell it "ridiculous" correctly! Not "rediculous". ^^

 

Would it not be easier to buy a plastic or carbon fibre bodied car?

Why new cars last better than old ones regarding rust is a very new technology called galvanized steel. Really.

 

Definately not as cheap though

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Tanaka Sensei (avatar) says: Please spell it "ridiculous" correctly! Not "rediculous". ^^

 

Funny enough.
I still cannot see why plastic body manufacturing should be so much more expensive than steel. Then we are not even starting with aluminium-alloys, very popular today by so-called luxury vehicle manufacturers.
Wonder why.

 

Plastic isn't as strong as steel and neither is aluminium.

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I do not answer private messages asking for help because no one else can: benefit from advice I may give or correct me if I'm wrong.

Please ask on the open forum if you have a question and I'll be happy to help, if I know the answer.

 

Not quite sure what you mean by strong. For example, by weight, a lot of composites and aluminum alloys are stronger than steel. The 7000 series aluminum alloys (e.g., 7075 and 7068) are casually referred to as stronger than mild steel by hardness and tensile strength.

John

 

I'm not talking about by weight, I mean by volume. Plastic is a lot less dense than steel and so is aluminium. Also, the composites that can outperform steel are a hell of a lot more expensive.

If you thing that there's another material stronger than steel that's cheaper, then why aren't they already using it?

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I do not answer private messages asking for help because no one else can: benefit from advice I may give or correct me if I'm wrong.

Please ask on the open forum if you have a question and I'll be happy to help, if I know the answer.

 

You have now added another limiting condition, namely cost. But, that wasn't included in your original statement with regard to strength.

Also, by volume, the aluminum alloys I mentioned (and some others) are stronger and harder than mild steel. Carbon fiber, by volume has a lot greater tensile strength than steel and weighs less. In fact, it cannot be cut well by HSS.

The use of steel over composites and aluminum boils down simply to cost in many cases. Ease of fabrication is another issue, as many strong aluminum alloys are very difficult to weld.

John