Investigation into The Effectiveness of Stainless Steel as A Material For The Production of Motor Cycle Exhaust Burn Protector

In this research work, the effectiveness of stainless steel sheet for the production of motor cycle exhaust muffler burn protector was investigated. Energy Dispersive X-Ray fluorescence method was used to determine the chemical composition of the stainless steel materials and exhaust muffler of the motor cycle. The stainless steel sheet was perforated and folded to frustum shape to achieve aero dynamic shape and used as protective cover on the exhaust muffler to protect the leg from burns. The burn protector produced was mounted on Jincheng AX 100 motor cycle and driving test carried out for 15 days using operational periods of 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes to determine its effectiveness. Cole Palmer thermocouple digital meter was used to measure the surface temperatures of the exhaust muffler and burn protector at the end of each operation cycle and data generated was averaged. The experimental results show that the longer the driving period the higher the temperatures of both the exhaust muffler and exhaust burn protector. At the maximum driving test period of 90 minutes, the temperature of the exhaust muffler rose from 0.2C to 92C and that of the Exhaust muffler burn protector rose from 0.2C to 10C respectively. The difference in the temperatures is 82C, which is significant. The stainless steel material is therefore suitable for the production of the exhaust muffler burn protector. KeywordsMotor cycle exhaust muffler; Stainless Steel; Exhaust muffler burn protector; Chemical composition; Driving test; Temperature.