Best Ways to Prevent Catalytic Converter Theft?

Now we are coming to the solution.  Find the guys buying the obviously stolen cats, and shut them down. 

You can only saw the hands off so many meth enthusiasts before it gets boring.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Yes and no. 
 

It's pretty easy to setup another meltdown facility after shutting one down. 
 

There is a LOT of money in recycled cats. Kinda like drugs. Every time you shut down a dealer, there is plenty of incentive for other people to fill the vacuum created.

The solution will be to create low emission vehicles that don't use rare elements like rhodium (which sells for more than $9000 per ounce) as a catalyst in catalytic converters. 

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Because they are melting them down for the precious metals. Who cares if they have a VIN number?

If you find a back alley factory melting down thousands of cats without a recycling license, you've probably found criminals.  I don't think you will need VIN numbers to prove it. 
 

 

The extraction process is a lot more involved than melting them down, though.  Not a back alley operation.  The guy who came up with the process became a multimillionaire overnight because he'd solved a difficult issue.

There is very little actual precious metal in a converter.  It'd be like trying to salvage the paint from a body panel.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

The solution will be to create low emission vehicles that don't use rare elements like rhodium (which sells for more than $9000 per ounce) as a catalyst in catalytic converters. 

Converters are getting smaller thanks to finer fuel control that allows engines to run AT stoich instead of having slow responding sensors and computers that would swing back and forth, so the converter would have to have a lot of surface area to store and release.  You'll never see them go away as long as there is an internal combustion engine involved, though.

I mean, we might be able to get away with thermal reactors, but those present fuel economy and engine longevity issues, and they cost as much or more to make as a catalytic converter.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I didn't say internal combustion engine. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Because they are melting them down for the precious metals. Who cares if they have a VIN number?

If you find a back alley factory melting down thousands of cats without a recycling license, you've probably found criminals.  I don't think you will need VIN numbers to prove it. 
 

 

The extraction process is a lot more involved than melting them down, though.  Not a back alley operation.  The guy who came up with the process became a multimillionaire overnight because he'd solved a difficult issue.

There is very little actual precious metal in a converter.  It'd be like trying to salvage the paint from a body panel.

Doesn't change that the VIN stamp wouldn't mean much. 
 

The value is in the core, not the shell. The shell is just steel. The VIN number would be stamped into the shell. 
 

It would just mean an extra 60 seconds with the sawzall to cut away the shell. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

Because they are melting them down for the precious metals. Who cares if they have a VIN number?

If you find a back alley factory melting down thousands of cats without a recycling license, you've probably found criminals.  I don't think you will need VIN numbers to prove it. 
 

 

The extraction process is a lot more involved than melting them down, though.  Not a back alley operation.  The guy who came up with the process became a multimillionaire overnight because he'd solved a difficult issue.

There is very little actual precious metal in a converter.  It'd be like trying to salvage the paint from a body panel.

Is it though? 

For stripping similar precious metals from computers it's just a series of chemical baths with not even very specialized equipment. 

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Yes and no. 
 

It's pretty easy to setup another meltdown facility after shutting one down. 
 

There is a LOT of money in recycled cats. Kinda like drugs. Every time you shut down a dealer, there is plenty of incentive for other people to fill the vacuum created.

But it's going the other way.  To try to catch the end user in a drub situation, you have anywhere from dozens to millions of end users using the product from a single creator.  Cats, you have a bunch of producers, who sell to a local dealer, who then sells to the cartel...