Back in early 2001, MicroBlue was introduced to industry when two industrial magazines, Design News and Product design & Development each ran a feature on MicroBlue®. Astonishingly, those two articles alone generated over 2000 phone calls in less than a six month period. The curiosity from the engineering community was simply amazing (and overwhelming).
Not bad for an article that was devoted to it's use by professional race teams at the time. There was an interesting group of participants in the DN article. Front and center was Dick Maskin from Dart Machinery providing some interesting insight on the benefits of MicroBlue® coated pistons and rings. There was also Alan and Todd Patterson from Patterson Racing back when they were running their Dodge Pro Stock truck. The spotlight of the other article was on MicroBlue's use in Indy Car transmission and drive components.
That was all well and good, but it honestly didn't do a damn thing for helping people understand how MicroBlue actually worked. Believe me, we tried everything the experts said to do. We provided facts and figures. No good. We compared it to every coating known to man (which is way too many, by the way). No better. We had all of the required "testimonials" and charts. Everybody yawned. So I guess we cast adrift about two thousand confused engineers and who knows how many race guys to fend for themselves.
We honestly didn't make much progress on that front until a customer walked in one evening with a crankshaft for his short tracker. He laid it on the table, and in a very frustrated tone he told me about his "encounter" with the guys at the crank shop:
Jack: “The guys at the crank shop asked me what this MicroBlue stuff was all about and I couldn't explain it to them worth a damn. You know I've been using this stuff for over three years now, and I honestly have no idea how it works.”
Enk: “Oh, that’s simple Jack, it’s like taking a shower” I replied.
Jack: “What in the world are you talking about?"
Enk: “You know how slippery you feel in the shower? It’s because soft water reduces the surface tension of soap. It changes the way it wets your skin, makes you feel slippery.”
Jack: “What the hell does that got to do with race cars?”
Enk: “Actually everything. The coating compound has some sulphur in it, but it's atomic sulphur, not the mineral. We all know sulphur has a natural attraction to lubricants, and that happens because of physics and chemistry. So now when a lubricant comes in contact with a MicroBlue coated surface, it reduces the lubricant's surface tension the same way soft water does. It literally changes the way the lubricant works. Now look at this bearing. Obviously the balls don't actually roll on the steel surfaces, because there's an oil film between them. It's the same thing with your main and rod bearings. So think about it. Don't we now have something that reduces friction between every loaded, moving and lubricated surface? Isn't that your entire race car?
Jack: "Yeah, that's everything."
Enk: Correct. And what's even better is all happens because of basic physics and chemistry. Like we learned in school. Or were supposed to learn in school anyway. The best part is that it can't hurt anything. Or not work for that matter.
Jack: “Yeah yeah, it does make sense. To me, it works like an additive, but it's on the surfaces instead of in the oil. How come you didn't explain it that way years ago?"
Enk: “Well back then, we had all these experts all around, telling us all this stuff we had to do. And they also said we couldn't talk that way, that it wasn't polished and professional." And now that I look back, I don't think we could have done a better job of confusing everyone, in a polished and professional way, of course.
Jack: Of course.
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Comments? Send your thoughts to: theEnkineer@MicroBlueRacing.com
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