On 15 January 2014 20:05, EVDL Administrator <[email protected]> wrote: > Here the instructions are reversed from Noalox's - abrade the conductor, > THEN apply Penetrox. It seems to me that the Noalox instructions would be > more consistent with better oxidation prevention. The Penetrox instructions > would leave the cleaned conductor exposed to air, if only for a few seconds.
Aluminum in free air will re-oxidize in milliseconds. Abrasion may help clean and smooth the surface but in free air, it won't help with the oxide layer. > The Noalox approach is the way I've usually done it - grease up, then > wirebrush. I must have read that somewhere (on a Noalox bottle?), although > technically that would probably be a code violation (not exactly following > installation directions) with Penetrox. Yes, one could argue that applying Noalox first and then carefully wire brushing the surface should work as long as the brushing action occurs inside the Noalox film and air remains excluded. I doubt that would work in practice. > I will say that none of the AL connections I've made over the years has yet > failed, including a couple in environmentaly somewhat hostile locations. > Make of that what you will. The oxide layer on AL surfaces is only a few nanometers thick and is easily broken if sufficient clamping force is applied. > As an addendum, I recall a debate several years ago, on one of the > electricians' web forums, about which kind of AL connection glop was best. > Several people made quite a noise about the fact that Noalox is flammable, > and Penetrox supposedly isn't. I doubt that the amount of grease involved will make any difference in fire risk. - Manfred _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
