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A simple and rapid immersion type corrosion test has been successfully developed that discriminates corrosion performance in condensers from various suppliers and with differing manufacturing processes. The goal is to develop a test specification that will be included in the Ford corrosion specification for condensers so that condensers received from various suppliers may be evaluated rapidly for their relative corrosion performance to each other. Sections from condensers from Supplier A (tube is silfluxed), Supplier B (tube is zinc arc sprayed), and Supplier C (bare folded tube with no zinc for corrosion protection) were tested in 2% v/v hydrochloric acid for 16, 24 and 48 hours. The results showed that in terms of corrosion performance, zinc arc sprayed Supplier B condenser performed the worst while Supplier C condenser performed the best with Supplier A in between. It was also observed that the fins, and fin-to-tube joints were first to corrode followed by the tube in all cases.

There is an ongoing effort in the industry to develop an accelerated corrosion test for automotive heat exchangers. This has become even more important as automakers are focusing on corrosion durability of 15 years in the field versus current target of 10 years. To this end an acid immersion test was developed and reported in a previous paper for condensers (1). This paper extends those results to evaporators and establishes the efficacy of the test using these results and those reported in the literature. The paper also discusses variability in corrosion test results as observed in tests such as ASTM G85:A3 Acidified Synthetic Sea Water Test (SWAAT), and its relation to field durability.

The effects of substituting a 12 mm thick subcool on top condenser in place of a 16 mm subcool on bottom condenser are evaluated in a vehicle level AC pull down test. The A to B testing shows that a thinner condenser with subcool on top exhibits no degradation in AC performance while resulting in a lower total system refrigerant charge. The results are from vehicle level tests run in a climatically controlled vehicle level wind tunnel to simulate an AC pull down at 43°C ambient. In addition to cabin temperature and AC vent temperatures, comparison of compressor head pressures was also done. The conclusion of the study was that a standard 16 mm thick subcool on bottom IRD condenser can be replaced by a 12 mm thick subcool on top IRD condenser with no negative effects on performance.