Electrochemicals Blog – EPI – Electrochemical Products Inc.

March 8th, 2010

By Eric Olander

EPi was recently asked to participate in congratulating Master Lock in its upcoming 90th year in business. Of those 90 years EPi has been doing business for over 40 years with Master Lock. EPi was asked to support Master Lock's 90th year by creating an ad for Industry Today magazine www.industrytoday.com .

EPi has been selling its cyanide cadmuim process E-Brite C-135 for Master Lock laminated locks. The shackles have E-Brite 757 bright nickel process. The zinc diecast use EPi's E-Brite 23-11R cyanide copper brightner system and the E-Brite 757 bright nickel process. The new Magnum lock process uses E-Brite Ultra Chlor AP and our trivalent chromate E-Chrome Ultra Blue.

EPi processes measure up to Master Lock's stringent quality requirements resulting in a long lasting lock!

Posted in Copper Plating, Electroplating, Metal Finishing, Nickel Plating, Trivalent Chromates, Uncategorized | No Comments »

March 25th, 2009

By Eric Olander

A few weeks ago I was interviewed for an article for the END OF THE LINE in Products Finishing (PF). In the April 2009 issue of Products Finishing you will find on page 56 the last page the interview.  For those of you that do not have a subscription to PF you can see the article via web by going to  http://www.pfonline.com/latest.html . If you are reading this after April then you will have to go into the archives on PFonline.

A couple of subjects you will find is nickel is it a carcinogen. Another interesting fact is there has been some studies on trivalent chromates turning into hexavalent.

 Need more info on  Sur/Fin? Go to www.nasf.org to register for attending or to get a booth for exhibiting.

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings, Nickel Plating, Trivalent Chromates | 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 »

June 24th, 2008

By Eric Olander

EPi exhibited at the NASF's Sur/Fin  in Indianapolis last week. Bob Campbell, Sid Arthur, Paul Kozdron, and Eric Olander (pictured to the left) worked at the booth. New and old friends visited us to learn about the latest  EPi processes such as trivalent chromate blue and yellow, alkaline non cyanide copper, antiquing/oxidizing, and other EPi processes were displayed.

Eric Olander gave a paper on the diphenyl carbazide controversy and Trivalent Yellow. Our latest development E-Ultra Yellow 600 provides 600-700 hours salt spray to 5% white rust and  700-800 hours to red rust. We have found it offers  little white creeping corrosion.  You  cut an X into the film  and salt spray the part.  The results were 200 hours of corrosion protection  to the first signs of white creeping corrosion were the X was cut. The other trivalent yellow chromates resulted in about 24-48 hours. What does this mean for the zinc plater? It means it will offer scratch resistance in a zinc barrel plating operation. Metal finishers, suppliers, and even some EPA representatives were at this talk

Last Tuesday night we enjoyed a wonderful evening at the Indianapolis Speedway. We went to the museum and the hospitality tent for some beverage, food, and networking. The highlight of the night was getting a lap around the track . No, we  did not go in an Indy car or a Nascar, but a high speed van that might have hit 50 mph. We did get to stop at the start finish line where therer are some of the original bricks of the speedway. We had a picture taken (picture on the right) at the finish line of myself and our distributor of Russia Bulat Bayzuldin.

Sur/Fin 2008 was left many memories.

Next year the show will be in Louiville, KY June 16-18th.

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

June 16th, 2008

By Eric Olander

 I am here in Indy Monday afternoon getting ready for Sur/Fin a two day show June 17-18th. Indy is a great conference town as over the years it has transformed itself to the new Midwest city ready to take on the world like Richard C. Longworth mentioned in his book "Caught in the Middle."

EPi looks forward to working with its distributors and cusomters discussing new finishes such as yellow trivalent chromate E-Chrome Ultra Yellow and EPi's alkaline non cyanide copper E-Brite Ultra CU and E-Brite 50/50 alkaline non cyanide  silver process.

I will be blogging about my presentation tomorrow on Trivalent Yellow Chromate and the Diphenyl Carbazide controversy. The blog will also discuss other trivalent chromates discussed tomorrow at 2-5 PM. Also on Tuesday and Wednesday we will be plating a nano I pod with our E-Brite Ultra Cu process. We will have a give away both days.

Posted in Copper Plating, Electroplating, Eric Olander Happenings, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

April 3rd, 2008

By Eric Olander

I participated in the annual NASF Milwaukee Branch Five Minute Supplier showdown held on April 1st,2008 This quick five minute presentation was about the Diphenyl Carbazide(DC) , indicating hexavalent chrome after ASTM B-117 salt spray testing, controversy that Tom Rochester discussed in the October 2007 issue of Plating Surface Finishing magazine. Tom discovered that you take a trivalent chromate and test it with DC prior to salt spray and it tests negative for hex chrome. After ASTM B-117 salt spray the test  was positive.

EPi we used the test method ISO 3613:2000(E) section 5.6 using a spectrophotometer both prior and after salt spray with negative results in both tests. We also tested our E-Chrome Ultra Blue and E-Chrome Ultra Yellow using Tom Rochester method after salt spray. We found out that our trivalent chromates do not test positive using the DC method.

Eric also talked briefly on a new trivalent yellow E-Ultra Yellow 300 that will be coming out this summer . Eric will be giving a more detail about this presentation on June 17th,2008 at Sur/Fin's technical conference Automotive Symposium Track II at 2-5 PM in Indianapolis, IN at the Indy Convention center.

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings, Metal Finishing, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

March 6th, 2008

By Eric Olander

One of EPI's strengths is developing custom formulations for its customers. Today taking the formula off the shelf always does not work today as customers have individual needs. Barrett Plating challenged us to develop a hexavalent chromate that is blue without any yellow color and that has at least 72 hours salt spray.  The EPi team of Larry Abbott  Chemist and Sid Arthur  Senoir Technical Service started working  together in EPi's lab in New Berlin, WI. Through the testing we actually found that the salt spray results exceeded 96 hours almost approaching 150 hours. This chromate is called E-Chrome 859. Another benefit of the E-Chrome 859 is that it produces a brighter blue finish. The E-Chrome 859 actually polishes the zinc plated surface.

Posted in Metal Finishing, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

February 8th, 2008

 By Eric Olander

 Today I met with our distributor CMFS that covers the Western PA and NY region. Alex Moore, Candy Joslyn, Brian Sutton, and Dave Wesp of CMFS were present at the presentation. The presentation included EPI's work on trivalent chromates specifically the Ultra Yellow, Super Yellow and our latest development which has been approaching 600-700 hours of salt spray. One thing I learned is that there is a demand for trivalent chromate that offers 600- 700 hours of salt spray. Brian informed me that there are some people using a trivalent chromate with a ceramic topcoat, but they are looking for alternatives .

We also discussed about plating on magnesium, the metal that will be plated on more in the future. I discussed our E-Brite Ultra CU-Mg process that results in higher corrosion protection than cyanide copper.

CMFS also has another division called Miraclean,  www.miraclean.com that sells aqueous cleaning systems such as ultra sonic systems. The President of CMFS is Tom Pembridge. CMFS www.cmfs.com  is located in Ashville, NY next to Jamestown,NY home of Lucille Ball about 2 1/2 hours away from Cleveland.

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

January 21st, 2008

An article in the, October 2007 Plating and Surface Finishing magazine, by Tom Rochester, presented an interesting theory as to what happens to a trivalent chromate during the salt spray test ASTM B-117. Testing with diphenyl carbizide (DC) prior to salt spray indicates that there is no hexavalent chrome on the zinc plated steel part that has a trivalent chromate on top of the zinc plate.  After salt spray a positive result using the (DC) occurs. EPi tested some of its trivalent chromates and found this to be true as well. So what is causing this phenomenon? I am not sure, but I wanted to see if there was another test we could perform to check for the hexavalent chrome test after salt spray.

We had our three trivalent chromates E-Chrome Ultra Blue, Ultra Yellow, and Super Yellow tested and verified that there was not any hexavalent chrome in the coating. We used Technimet our metallurgical lab to conduct these tests and we found out that they utilized an ISO 3613:2000(E) section 5.6 in verifying that all of our trivalent chromates did not contain any hexavalent chrome. This test does not use the indicator test (DC).  To save time with this blog entry please contact us or Technimet if you want the exact test procedure. In fact there is a another ISO test you can perform for adhesion ISO 3613:2000 (E) section 5.9

I will be discussing more about these facts during my paper in Trivalent Yellow Chromates at Sur/Fin 2008 in Indianapolis in June. To sign up for the conference go to www.nasf.org .

Posted in Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

November 12th, 2007

The latest Plating Surface Finishing magazine has an article by Tom Rochester that states that trivalent chromates under salt spray testing result in hexavalent chrome when using the diphenyl carbizide indicator test. We at EPi tried this on panels that had been salt sprayed at Technimet and are initial analysis supports Tom's claim. One thing we did not do and I wonder about other testing labs and metal finishers. Do they certify that the salt spray cabinet has no hexavalent chrome in that cabinet while they are doing salt spray of trivalent chromates? I remember one time we were doing testing on a trivalent chromate and we put some panels in and my Chemist Mark Kulas informed me that we had an unusual failure after 24 hours. I went over with him and in the cabinet was pressure treated wood with different fasteners lodged into the wood. The wood preservtative leaches out during the test and was the root cause of the failure. Where am I going? Make sure you document what other coatings are in the salt spray cabinet when you do testing. The labs love to throw a bunch of different parts to maximize there profits. Therefore, what EPi is doing is performing tests in cabinets that have been certified not to contain hex chrome and no other parts are in the cabinet during the test. We will be doing testing in a salt spray cabinet and a humidity chamber. Hey here is another interesting fact. Technimet recently expanded to new facilities and they had to move the cabinets. During the moving process they had to take out the cooling water that helps keep the temperature constant.  The problem was that cooling water had hexavalent chrome as a corrosion inhibitor. Could cooling water some how leach into the cabinet?

Posted in Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »