Final Coat Research & Development


Since our R&D Laboratory was opened in 2007, Final Coat has invested millions to create what has been described as “a unique facility with no peer anywhere in the world,” by Dr. Digby Macdonald, formerly Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Director for Electrochemical Science and Technology at Pennsylvania State University.

Studies at our Final Coat R&D laboratory in Hartville, Ohio allow us to isolate and control almost every variable in corrosion testing. This ongoing investment in technology has yielded significant advancements such as our latest generation CM-3000 module, which draws only 0.3 milliamps of current from a vehicle’s battery. We are still unlocking the tremendous potential of our Electromagnetic Induction Corrosion Control Technology (EICCT) and are committed to advancing both the pure science and its application to the automotive industry.

We employ two full-time scientists to lead our corrosion research. Dr. Michael Lewis invented the tech- nology in 1997 and was hired by Final Coat in 2004. Dr. Jason McLafferty joined in 2009. Both scien- tists, plus two full-time lab assistants, work under the guidance of a world-class corrosion scientist, Dr. Digby Macdonald.


Dr. Michael E. Lewis, PhD

Inventor Physicist

is the inventor of EICCT and the leader of Final Coat’s R&D Department, with a PhD in Physics from Kent State University in 1987. Dr. Lewis has twenty-two patents and invented a new electronic corrosion reduction method in 1997. He has designed various environmental chambers and a Raman spectrometer for surface chemical analysis. While with Cisco Systems, he led a communications systems engineering group where he directed the architectural design of digital signal processing integrated circuits for digital communications and was responsible for the design and direction of several large scale communications computer simulations. As a faculty member and consultant, Dr. Lewis has directed a multidisciplinary materials science research effort to study the relationship between the molecular structure and the third-order optical nonlinearity of metal organic polymers and monomers and has worked extensively in the fields of laser physics, optoelectronics, optical modulation and liquid crystal physics.


A Message From The Inventor (Video)



Dr. Jason McLafferty, PhD

Scientist Electrochemist

has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Penn State Erie, the Behrend College. He then worked at Alcoa’s Research Laboratories and became interested in electrochemistry. Based on this interest, he decided to do his doctoral dissertation research with Dr. Digby Macdonald in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He co-wrote two invention disclosures on Regeneration of Sodium Borohydride. Jason graduated with his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Pennsylvania State University with dissertation research in electrochemistry. In 2009, he joined Dr. Michael Lewis at our research facility to explore the electrochemical side of our patented technology.


Dr. Enrique Maya-Visuet

Scientist Corrosion Engineer

holds a doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, specializing in Electrochemistry from The University of Akron. He also holds Master and Bachelor level degrees in Corrosion/Metallurgy from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. From 2011 to 2015, he worked as a PhD Research Assistant at The University of Akron. In that role, he led and conducted research in the development of coating systems and material selection for corrosive environments, employing mathematical simulations. Selected project experience includes materials selection for Cargill Inc., electrochemical coating evaluation for PPG Industries, and damage evolution characterization for Tesla NanoCoatings Inc.
Dr. Maya-Visuet’s research and publications to date have been focused on the effects of pigmentation on polyurethane/polysiloxane hybrid coatings, electrochemical characterization of select stainless steel alloys in the presence of chloride and bromide solutions, and the effect of chloride ions on the electrochemical performance of stainless steel alloys in concrete and simulated concrete-pore solutions. Dr. Maya-Visuet has also presented several papers for both NACE International and Electrochemical Society conferences. He is a member of NACE International, ASM International, and The Electrochemical Society.


Petros Z. Giatis

Engineering Electrical Engineer

has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the University of Akron. From 2000 to 2013 was the lead RF Hardware Engineer at Cisco Systems. While at Cisco designed and developed world class LAN Hardware and RF detector circuits and received his first patent, United States Patent number 7,760,024, “System and method for increasing accuracy of transmitter power detection over a larger range of output power levels”. Hired by Pepperl-Fuchs 2013 as their R&D manager over a team of 17 engineers until May 2017. Along with this he started his own wireless speaker company which was later sold in 2015. Petros has also consulted for Summit Racing, AutoTechnica and Summa Health Systems.


Dr. Digby Macdonald, PhD

Scientist Corrosion Consultant

is one of the world’s leading corrosion scientists and Professor in Residence in the Departments of Nuclear Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at University of California at Berkeley. From 2003 to 2012, he was a Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Director for the Center for Electrochemical Science and Technology at Penn State University. Dr. Macdonald has published over 900 papers in scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. He is the author of a book entitled “Transient Techniques in Electrochemistry” and holds 9 patents. In 2003, Dr. Macdonald received the highest award in the field of corrosion science and engineering – the U.R. Evans Award from the Institute of Corrosion in the United Kingdom. In 2011, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Macdonald holds a B.Sc. (1965) and M.Sc. (1966) in Chemistry, University of Auckland (New Zealand) and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1969), University of Calgary (Canada).


More About Digby