Mobile Corrosion Evaluation System

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Vehicles typically represent the second largest consumer purchases after housing, and commercial owners invest heavily in vehicle fleet operations. One of the greatest threats to vehicle integrity is corrosion. Successfully assessing and treating corrosion significantly increases vehicle owner satisfaction while extending the useful and sustainable life of the vehicle. Vehicles that remain useable longer reduces material demand, and consumes fewer resources and energy. Even if a vehicle has reached its end-of-life, the recoverability and usability of vehicle parts are enhanced if corrosion can be minimized. However, assessing the impacts from corrosion and how to prevent it requires some objective means to measure it. A review of the literature and practices revealed that there is no standardized means to measure corrosion on a vehicle on a widescale basis. Other corrosion detection methods largely focus on industrial applications (e.g., detecting corrosion in bridges, buildings). No other system to our knowledge offer a readily field deployable system that, for example, a technician could use in a garage or in the field quickly and efficiently. Our partner, Krown Corporation, is an industry leader in aftermarket corrosion prevention for vehicles. They are interested in deploying a potential corrosion evaluation tool to all of its affiliate sites throughout Canada to better serve their customers, and add value to their product and service offerings. Previously, the researchers worked with Krown to demonstrate that a proof-of-concept that a corrosion metric could be developed by assessing typical vehicle parts and their state of corrosion in an after market setting. The second phase of research verified the interpretation of corrosion observations, and improved the corrosion metric observations by combining optical detection methods and computerized analysis and interpretation. The next and final phase of research in this research proposal is to develop the corrosion metric system into a mobile application that can be easily used and applied in a field/garage setting.