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REPO RT NASF President���s Farewell Message s we begin this new year, I will be completing my second term as president of our association. Time has passed quickly, and we are moving into another promising new year for the NASF. It is an active and exciting time for us, and I���d like to recap some of the highlights of these past two years. Communications ��� Our primary goal has been to improve our communication to our membership, and I believe that we have made great strides in that area. We have vastly improved and updated the NASF website, retooled our monthly association bulletins and partnered with Products Finishing to widen the reach of our message. We���ve also reached out to guide members through the transition to a new membership structure. Meetings and Events ��� Our various industry events continue to improve and grow, especially our premier event, NASF SUR/ FIN. This past year we hosted SUR/FIN in Las Vegas for the first time with great success. The SUR/FIN Steering Committee and the NASF Technology Advisory Committee are to be commended for their top-shelf effort to put together a very successful exhibition and conference. An important addition to this event was the Global Surface Technology Roundtable Session Panel, made up of industry members from around the world who discussed trends in their particular countries as they relate to the surface finishing industry. We had excellent participation by industry representatives from Brazil, Mexico, Japan, China, Singapore and Italy, just to name a few. Global Reach ��� Moreover, we have expanded our engagement with the global finishing industry and its associations, including launching a formal strategic partnership with the Nickel Institute, and our role is shaping larger trends that impact North America directly. Our commitment here has been partly to actively participate in a number of worldwide events, including participating in the EBRATS A 2012 conference in Brazil, joining a roundtable discussion at the Interfinish 2012 conference in Italy, and giving the keynote address at the inaugural SUR/ FIN Asia exhibition and conference in Singapore. Advocacy ��� Advocacy activity during these past two years has continued to be an important part of association undertakings. This includes the strong efforts of our Government Advisory Committee and The Policy Group in dealing with contin- Tony Revier ued legislative and regulatory activity. Industry Promotion ��� We���ve also more effectively promoted and marketed our industry in new ways. We continue to work with the College of Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich., to conduct the NASF Bright Design Challenge, and just this past December, we completed our third year of the Surface Finishing Challenge at the Art Center in Pasadena, Calif. It has been an eventful time as president, and I want to express my sincere appreciation to our Board of Directors and to thank NASF Executive Vice President Christian Richter for his tremendous support, vision and passion in helping to direct our association. Special thank you, as well, to Jeff Hannapel of The Policy Group, Cheryl Clark on events and Phil Asante on member relations. Most importantly, I would like to thank you members for your continued trust and support of NASF. We still have many things to accomplish as we go forward, and it is only through everyone���s effort that we can make things happen. Happy New Year! Technical Papers Functional Trivalent Chromium Electroplating of Internal Diameters by Burhanuddin Kagajwala, Timothy D. Hall, Maria Inman and E.J. Taylor (Faraday Technology Inc.); Bruce Griffin (Boeing Co.); George Cushnie and Randal Taylor (Advanced Tooling Corp.); and Mark Jaworowski and Joe Bonivel (United Technologies Research Center) Hexavalent chromium plating has been used for many years to provide hard, durable coatings with excellent wear- and corrosionresistance properties. However, hexavalent chromium baths have come under increasing scrutiny due to the toxic nature of the bath, the effects on the environment and workers��� health. The situation has spawned the development of a variety of replacement processes, most notably the use of trivalent chromium plating. This alternative has been popular because it offers a virtual ���drop-in��� replacement with a process characterized by non-line-of-sight coating distribution. Processes for thin coatings for decorative applications have been successful for many years, however, the fly-in-the-ointment has been the difficulty in obtaining heavier thickness for engineering 10 JANUARY 2013 applications to replace ���hard chromium��� plating. The staff at Faraday Technology Inc. of Clayton, Ohio, has for many years expended considerable effort in developing a trivalent engineering chromium plating process with much success. Documented in many journals, the process utilizes complex current waveforms to modify the interfacial electrochemistry to allow the deposit to continue ���accumulating��� to useful thicknesses, with properties comparable to existing hexavalent chromium plating for functional applications. This paper discusses Faraday���s most recent research work on the development of this process, specifically for plating chromium on the internal surfaces of cylindrical parts, including new data on wear test properties. This paper is a peer-reviewed, edited version of a presentation delivered at NASF SUR/FIN 2012 in Las Vegas, Nev., on June 12, 2012, updated to include the latest wear test data. The full paper can be accessed at short.pfonline.com/NASF13Jan1.