Batboard

Hello, I have about 30 CP200 radios that are being used at a Automotive Battery Facility. The Sulfuric acid is eating away the plastic PPT button on the HMN9030A speaker mics we are using. I see Motorola has a vinyl cover avalible for these mics but that will not hold up under these conditions. Anyone know of a protective bag, or has a workaround for this? Radios are doing fine, just the PPT on the mics that is affected be the Acid. If so, can you let me know.

Thanks,
Darrell

How about the skin on the people using the radios, or
are they wearing protective suits?

Think about the inside of the speaker mic, and the radio.

Well, they do wear protective clothing. The issue is that when they need to use the radio they don't bother to remove their gloves which have acid on them. The acid then causes the PTT lever to become hard, and then in time it cracks and falls out. The mic itself is not really damaged to bad by the acid. In most cases you have little to no damage to the mic, cord, or plug. On the radio I have to replace the Volume, Freq knob and the antenna from time to time. Once had a guy drop a radio into a mixing tank full of 18.35 acid. All that was damaged on the radio was the chassis which I replaced and the battery,Antenna and knobs. The seal held and the inside was clean. Motorola should send radios to me for testing. Anyway, the acid doesn't really eat stuff away. It just seems to dry it out and then cracks away and fulls apart.
-Darrell

Have you considered a headset w/boom microphone with VOX enabled? I am not sure how loud the factory is so this may not be feasible, but it seems the best route here is for the floor guys to avoid touching any of the components with acid-laden gloves.

Edit: After further research there is a part that may be of interest to you. There is an EMS (Ear Microphone System) PTT Body Switch that would be placed under the protective clothing, and has a large button that would activate PTT by being pressed on through the clothing. This may be cost-prohibitive though as I believe it requires use with the EMS and those run about $460 by themselves, which is about the cost of an entire radio.