Electrochemicals Blog – EPI – Electrochemical Products Inc.

July 14th, 2010

From the Left John Cheng, Eric Olander, Char Heinke, Mark Kulas, Tom Axon, and Paul Kozdron

By Eric Olander

Sorry for the delay in not writing a blog, but my father Stan has been had some health challenges. Sur/Fin 2010 was a great success as we  visited potential new customers and existing ones on new processes. It seems that alkaline non cyanide copper was one of them more popular topics. The  discussion included heat treat stop off applications which the E-Brite 30/30 leads the way as it is Boeing  approved BAC 5722 for commercial and defense applications. Another application was replacing cyanide copper being used in a strip application plus a barrel application on steel. To learn more about the alkaline copper CLICK HERE.

Mark Kulas, EPi Chemist from our lab demonstrated our latest Insta Blak 333 GEL for steel and iron and B/ox 311 GEL for copper and copper alloys. We shooing a video and we  will shortly be posting it once I create it. CLICK HERE to learn more.

Insta Blak 333 had some considerable interest as well as people were looking at  bringing parts in house that they were sending out for hot black oxide.

I won the Munning Award from the NASF on my work as the Sur/Fin committee chair person. I will be serving as Past Chair for the next two years.  The Munning Award is given to a supplier has demonstrated leadership and volunteerism for the NASF. I am working on a picture for you to see.

Posted in Black Oxide, Copper Plating, Metal Antiquing | No Comments »

September 11th, 2008

By Eric Olander

EPi is excited about working with Metal Finishing magazine in participating in its first pod-cast/webinar. Reginald Tucker Editor of  Metal Finishing magazine interviewed me regarding the latest innovations at  EPi. To gain access to this pod-cast/audio program go to http://www.metalfinishing.com/webinars/epi0908.html  . Log in and sit back and listen to what is new in trivalent chormates, black oxide and antiquing at EPi.

Posted in Black Oxide, Eric Olander Happenings, Metal Antiquing, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

May 14th, 2008

By Eric Olander

 Interesting result with  two black oxide processes,  Ultra Blak 400hot black oxide and  Insta Blak 333room temperature blackening, they provide an excellent anti-galling surface on steel parts. What is anti-galling? Anti-galling is necessary to break in mating parts, the anti-galling surface sacrifices the lubricating layer of black during the initial contact and abrasion while a work hardened surface is formed. An example of this is drill bits and also concrete nailing hammers. A  blackened drill bit when it first touches the steel being drilled into serves as a lubricant to the steel that is being drilled into. After that drilling operation the drill bit is surfaced hardened ready to take on other drilling operations. Another application by one of EPI's customer was concrete  nailing guns. The Insta Blak 333  process actually provided better anti-galling  results than the hot black oxide processes. The Insta Blak process resulted in the appropriate torque values for that anti-galling situation  in concrete nailing guns that the hot black oxide process could not, it was too hard.

Posted in Black Oxide | No Comments »

April 29th, 2008

By Eric Olander

Goodrich Corporation's Advanced Sensors Technical Center sent EPI's lab in New Berlin, WI samples of Kovar parts for blackening. Their challenge was that the traditional stainless steel blackening of 416 series was more grey than black. Kovar contains a high amount of nickel 29% and cobalt 17% metals. Larry Abbott tried our Ultra Blak 465, hot black oxide process for nickel. Attached is an SME picture taken at 10,000x magnification. Goodrich likes the uniform black color because it was black with no grey which works better for their light sensor applications.

Posted in Black Oxide | No Comments »

February 20th, 2008

Recently, a distributor from Chemithon -Portland Gary Sylvester presented us an opportunity to remove laser scale. We tried two products E-Pik 215  sodium bisulfate base and E-Kleen 154 phosphoric acid base cleaners. The following is the method that works for removing the scale

E-Pik 215 2#/gallon, 140 F, 3 minutes

E-Kleen 154 10% by volume, 120-140F, 5-7 minutes

E-Kleen 154 — An acidic, solvent based, multi-metal cleaner and mild aluminum etchant.

E-Kleen 154 is a liquid concentrate blend of acid, solvent, surfactants and complexers, formulated to achieve in one step, the cleaning and preparation of a variety of metal surfaces prior to blackening, phosphating and chromating. It is recommended for use following conventional alkaline soak cleaners to ensure neutralization of residual alkalinity prior to acidic blackening or oxidizing processes. It is an effective surface conditioner/activator prior to Insta-Blak acidic blackening processes. It will remove light oils, light rust, light heat-treat scale and most shop soils efficiently and quickly. This metal cleaner can be bought online.

E-Pik 215 — Dry Acid Salts

It is a general purpose metal activator and deoxidizer containing fluoride which is used at room temperature on steel, copper, brass, and zinc.

E-Pik 215 is a free flowing mixture of dry acids and is more convenient and safer to use than liquid mineral aids. It does not produce the undesirable fumes given off with strong acids. It is dissolved in water and used at ambient temperatures to remove light to medium surface rust from steel and to activate steel surfaces prior to blackening with EPI's Insta-Blak or Ultra-Blak solutions. Heavily rusted surfaces may require elevated temperatures of 150°-170° F. No venting required when used at ambient temperatures. It is used following the water rinse after cleaning the steel surfaces with EPI's E-Kleen alkaline soak and electrocleaners.

E-Pik 215 is more moderate in its action on steel surfaces than mineral acids and produces a uniformly active surface. It is also used to activate zinc plated surfaces, diecast zinc surfaces, and copper and copper alloy surfaces prior to blackening, oxidizing, antiquing, plating, chromating, or other finishing.

Posted in Black Oxide, Metal Cleaners | No Comments »

February 15th, 2008

By Eric Olander

February 12th, John Jairo Sanchez President of Galvano of Quito, Ecuador visited EPi to receive training on EPi products.

Galvano sells in Ecuador and Columbia metal finishing processes. John learned about EPi's trivalent chromates E-Chrome Ultra Blue and E-Chrome Ultra Yellow which he stated has an excellent potential with his customers. E-Brite Ultra Cu alkaline non cyanide copper plating for zinc die cast was also demonstrated resulting in excellent adhesion to zinc die cast. John will also be selling the E-Brite 50/50 alkaline non cyanide silver plating process as well as EPi's Insta Blak and Ultra Blak metal blackening & black oxide processes. We look forward to a long term relationship Galvano.

Posted in Black Oxide, Electroplating, Eric Olander Happenings | No Comments »

February 15th, 2008

We recently received some tooling parts in our lab from a major tool manufacturer that was having black oxide coated tool parts turning an orangish-red color on a machined surface area. Their goal is to make the parts a uniform black. They sent some parts to Mark Kulas, one of EPi's chemical technicians, to develop a custom process for their parts. Here is the procedure that produced uniform black parts.

1.  E-Kleen 148-E 10% by volume, 140F, 3-6 minutes
2. Cold Water Rinse 30 seconds
3. E-Prep 258 20% by volume, 70-80 F, 30-90 seconds
4. Cold Water Rinse 30 seconds
5. Insta Blak 333 10% by volume, 70-80F, 2-4 minutes
6. Cold Water Rinse 30 seconds
7. E-Tec 503 water displacing oil 100% by volume 1-2 minutes

    There are other instances where Insta Blak 333 will produce black parts where hot black oxide will not.  Steel castings can turn red-black during the hot black oxide process. Take the same parts in Insta Blak 333 and the parts will turn a uniform black color with no red hues. Insta Blak 333 produces a black without the white salting out that hot black oxide will on powdered metal parts. Insta Blak 333 produces a great black color on cast iron, while hot black oxide will have a red hue to it. So when evaluating your blackening choices Insta Blak 333 can produce superior results to hot black oxide.  Here is a quick link to our Intsta Blak page.

http://www.epi.com/black-oxide/insta-blak-333.html

Posted in Black Oxide | No Comments »

October 17th, 2007

EPI's YouTube Videos are Live
See Eric Olander, President of EPI Demonstrate the
Black Oxide Metal Blackening Process

• Part 1 of 4-Part Series on Room Temp/Cold Black Oxide Insta Blak
• Part 2 of 4-Part Series
• Part 3 of 4-Part Series
• Part 4 of 4-Part Series

Posted in Black Oxide | No Comments »

October 15th, 2007

History of Electrochemical Products, Inc. (EPI)
by Eric Olander

Welcome to our new blog.  Just so you know a little about our company:  EPI was founded in 1954 and is family-owned.   We are located in New Berlin, which is 13 miles west of Milwaukee in Wisconsin.  We're about 80 miles from Chicago.

EPI is an award winning developer and manufacturer of high quality chemicals for the metal plating and metal finishing industries.  We sell our products in the United States and overseas.  EPI offers a wide variety of chemical cleaning, metal blackening (black oxide), antiquing, electroplating and rust prevention solutions. Among its many innovations, EPI is well-known for developing custom metal cleaners, trivalent chromates, and alkaline non-cyanide and acid copper plating processes.

We'll be blogging about our industry, changes in products, upcoming & current events including conferences and various webcasts.  We're also posting to YouTube so you can learn more about our black oxide processes.  We've recently posted a short video segment on the room temperature (also referred to as "cold black oxide") black oxide process (<1 minute).

Posted in Black Oxide | No Comments »