新明丹

English translation: Lead-free iron primer

21:46 Mar 13, 2009

Japanese to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Energy / Power Generation / Steam Turbine maintenance

Japanese term or phrase: 新明丹

This is the product name of a chemical solution that is applied to metal contact surfaces to verify the degree of contact between them. (There is another product called 光明丹 that comes up on Eijiro as "red lead primer".) Since it is a Japanese product I can't just use the name, since it may not be known or available in the US, so I need the name of an equivalent product available in the US. Any ideas? The internet translation of the product brochure calls it a "mold checker" which sounds strange. For now, I'm tentatively going with "contact verification agent". Or would "lead primer" do? If lead primer is commonly used for such purposes, it would be the better choice, I think.

Earl Hartman KudoZ activity Questions: 11 (1 open) (1 without valid answers) Answers: 1
Local time: 15:30

English translation:Lead-free iron primer

Explanation:
光明丹 is a name for lead tetroxide, "most often used as a pigment for undercoat paints for iron objects" (Wikipedia)

新明丹 appears to be a brand name for "lead-free 光明丹"
http://www.chuck.jp/products/komyo.html

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Note added at 1 hr (2009-03-13 23:26:30 GMT)
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A little more searching reveals 光明丹 is/was indeed used for a variety of things including contact checking, and is also known as "red lead" in English. "Lead-free Red Lead" would be a little odd, but just "primer" or "contact checker" would perhaps be a little too specific

The point of the name, in any case, is that it is an "upgraded" lead-free version of 光明丹

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Note added at 2 hrs (2009-03-14 00:08:00 GMT)
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In response to asker's note: Actually the Japanese wikipedia page itself (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/鉛丹 ) contains the English name "red lead" if you look closely. Then, randomly adding a few more search terms, I hit upon a google search for "red lead paste", which leads to pages like these ones

http://yarchive.net/car/red_lead.html
http://www.daizo.co.jp/cgi-bin/detail.cgi?id=625

Selected response from:

Matthew Francis
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:30

Grading comment

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

Lead-free iron primer

Matthew Francis

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

1 hr confidence:

Lead-free iron primer

Matthew Francis
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:30
Does not meet criteria
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Notes to answerer

Asker: Thanks. Yes, I found the entry in Wikipedia, in addition to the product brochure (although it was a different brochure). However, I would like to know how you did the extra searching that led you to finding out that primer was, indeed, used for contact checking and was called "red lead" in English. After finding the product brochure, I didn't really know where to go. Thanks again.

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新明丹

English translation: Lead-free iron primer

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