Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Get Out Your Grills

Just attended a webinar today and never realized that simple things like grills have a corrosion problem. Seems like that investment you made to entertain your friends on a hot summer or beautiful spring day, as you like it, is subject to being an ugly sight in just a couple of years, depending on your environment. When you stop to think about it, most of us toil at the unit, dutifully cooking our favorite specialties in food until the entire crowd is thoroughly sated and then we are too tired to clean up the mess. After all, tomorrow is another day and we will really have energy to do what we needed to do now, before we could procrastinate. In reality, in a couple of years after purchase, when we just had that brilliant idea that we should invite all our friends over again, oops! We are into a problem because the sight that we see as we are ready to cook is ugly. The inside consists of black oxide or carbide scale, if we are lucky. In worst case we can see daylight through holes that have perforated the shell. Certainly the grill and the supports are nothing to write home to mother about either.
What on earth has happened? How could this top of the line piece of equipment be in such a useless state? The problem is that most of us do not understand the damaging effect of heat and  the environment experienced by the grill. After all, we have only used it for a couple of hours and then maybe cleaned and stored it for another day. Unfortunately, over that small period of time, the grill, while at maximum usage, could have reached temperatures as high as 500 degrees centigrade. In addition there was charcoal contained therein and the atmosphere reacting to create either or carburization or oxidation. To accelerate these reactions the normal liquid products being emitted from whatever is being grilled are also dripping and wetting these hot surfaces. Should we further leave the cooling unit outside in the weather, as a thunderstorm quickly arises, more trouble. If we are at the ocean, well, even more trouble because a salt atmosphere enters the equation as well. 
Therefore not only to resolve this kind of problem but all other corrosion problems, billions of dollars are spent yearly for restoration or replacement. In other words, corrosion remains one of the most troublesome problems within the world. Replacement or restoration is therefore an expensive proposition. There is therefore a need for improved thin coatings to protect equipment sustaining increasing temperatures in harsh environments to at least extend the useful life cycle. Currently paints, plated surfaces, polymers and ceramics are used to accomplish these objectives. 
Plated surfaces are  creating problems because plated surfaces contain metals that are now considered to be harmful to health. Therefore those nice chrome plated surfaces are no longer available. Polymers are limited to lower opperating temperatures and ceramics are brittle and tend to chip. 
Therefore there  is a continual search for new coatings to protect surfaces from heat and the environment in which the unit exists. Magnatech participates in this world. We currently have five patents protecting proprietary assets using nanotechnology to create  tough, wear and corrosion resistant surfaces. We also continue to do research in this area that will either improve or restore the surfaces of parts that are subjected to these harsh environments. Perhaps your next grill will have longer life as a result of use of a MagnaTech development. In closing, MagnaTech wishes you a super spring, summer and fall entertaining your friends, hopefully with a surface that will survive all of your basic sins in creating the worst environment for their preservation. Fair Winds!