Let’s say you are performing a cost of operations study and need to know what your solution loss is due to drag out over the course of time. You could put something under a rack or barrel as it comes out of the process solution to catch what drains off and measure. However, this method is impractical, inaccurate, and unsafe. The best way to calculate drag out over time is to pick a component of the process that is not consumed in any other way except by drag out. A good example is sodium hydroxide in an alkaline zinc plating bath. Calculation Example: Let’s say that you check your … [Read more...]
January 15, 2014 By
Electrolytic Stripping – a “Greener” Alternative to Immersion Stripping
With the environmental pressures being placed on metal finishers today, finding “greener” technologies that are more environmentally friendly and cost effective is a big focus. The solution chemistry (or pH) can be of alkaline (> 7.0), acidic (< 7.0) or neutral (= 7.0) in nature. Although chemical immersion strippers are most widely used today, electrolytic stripping is gaining more popularity. Chemical immersion strippers have a limited bath life. Acidic strippers, such as mineral acids (i.e.- nitric acid, etc.) are tenacious on racks, causing dehydration of the plastisol coating … [Read more...]
January 7, 2014 By
How to Choose the Right Cleaner
We all want the best least expensive cleaner to do our cleaning job. The question is: What cleaner works and meets all my needs on my nickel plating line? When comparing cleaners you need to make sure that you are doing a complete and thorough comparison. Several things must be evaluated to determine a complete picture. First you must understand and know what you are cleaning: The base metal Soils to be removed Time allowed Temperature allowed Rack or barrel Concentration Waste treatment requirements Makeup and dump schedule Makeup investment Use … [Read more...]
December 1, 2013 By
Basics of Alkaline Cleaning
Cleaning is the most important phase of metal working, fabricating and finishing. A clean surface is the critical foundation for subsequent operations. Alkaline cleaning is the mainstay of industrial cleaning. Cleaners are many in number and vary in type and formulation. Working solutions of alkaline cleaners may employ both physical and chemical actions. Proprietary alkaline cleaners are specifically formulated chemical blends. These products typically consist of alkaline builder salts, surfactants, emulsifiers and chelators. … [Read more...]
November 21, 2013 By
Why Zinc Plating?
Most people you talk to about zinc electroplating, have very little knowledge of what that process means, or why you would want to perform it. As you go a little deeper into the explanation of what zinc electroplating entails, they begin to see the picture. Looking at a car, there are many parts that will corrode from exposure to water and salt from the roads. The corrosion leads to part failure if left unchecked. The next question that comes to mind is, how do you protect these parts? Answer: You add a coating on top of the parts to slow down or prevent corrosion. There are a variety of … [Read more...]
November 7, 2013 By
Simple Comparison for Cleaners
We all want the best least expensive cleaner to do our cleaning job. The question is, what cleaner works and meets all my needs on my nickel plating line? When comparing cleaners, how do you make sure that you are doing a complete and thorough comparison? Several things must be evaluated to determine a complete picture. First, you must understand and know what you are cleaning: The base metal, soils to be removed, time allowed, temperature allowed, rack or barrel, concentration, waste treatment requirements, makeup and dump schedule, makeup investment, and use investment. Following the basics … [Read more...]
October 28, 2013 By
Eliminating Cyanide from Your Copper Plating Process
There are a variety of copper plating technologies. These include acid copper, electroless copper, alkaline non-cyanide copper and alkaline cyanide copper. With the EPA’s Common Sense Initiative, plating facilities are moving away from the cyanide copper processes. The Common Sense Initiative impacts the automotive, iron and steel, computers and electronics, printing, petroleum refining, and metal finishing industries. Its objective is to reduce or prevent pollution, and the plan assigned a high priority to reducing or eliminating emissions of hexavalent chrome, chlorinated solvents, cadmium … [Read more...]
October 21, 2013 By
Effective Manufacturing Parts Cleaning
Parts washing and coating pretreatment is an integral part of many manufacturing operations across the U.S. today. Typically if the part is going to be welded, coated, assembled, or shipped "as is," the greases, lubricants, coolants, and oils from the previous step must be removed to ensure effective future process success. Sometimes the pretreatment step is an afterthought, or an effective full assessment has never been performed to determine what is the best pretreatment chemistry for your process. How do you choose the best pretreatment chemistry? Many times the existing cleaning … [Read more...]
October 17, 2013 By
Some Electrical Troubleshooting Notes
When trying to figure out what is causing a particularly stubborn plating problem, and checking out the chemistry seems fine, you know that you sometimes have to check out the electrical area of the process. These are a few things you can do with a VOM (volt-ohm meter). First of all, be sure you have a good VOM that has built in capacitance and not a cheap “battery tester." Checking for AC Ripple from Rectifier If the rectifier has recently dropped a diode or has degraded filter capacitors, it may not be filtering out the unwanted AC current properly. When this happens, the AC ripple is … [Read more...]
October 14, 2013 By
Watts Nickel Bath: Basis for Modern Nickel Plating
When looking at the chemistry of the Modern Nickel Plating solution, you have to go back to the early 1900’s; 1916, to be more precise. Watts began plating nickel with nickel sulfate, nickel chloride and boric acid. These components are the basis of all modern bright, semi-bright, microporous and high-sulfur formulations used today. While the combination is always the same, the amounts differ some by bath type and manufacture. To compare the original formulation to the bright nickel levels, here are the typical levels: 1916 2013 Range Nickel … [Read more...]