Mexico, employs 32 disabled or
disadvantaged workers within its
1,121-person workforce.
In the U.S., the use of cyanide
in surface finishing has been on
the radar of the Environmental
Protection Agency for more than
a decade. In fact, way back in 1994
the EPA launched its Common
Sense Initiative, which claimed it
was not instigating rule changes
that were arbitrary but was singling
out hexavalent chrome and cyanide
in metal plating operations as an
example of changes that needed
to be made by the industry for
environmental reasons.
Along with cadmium and chlorinated solvents, the EPA listed hex
chrome and cyanide as a priority
for technology transfer. Finishers
were also facing huge costs associated with the handling of the
cyanide bath waste, causing even
more headaches for the industry.
But it was hard for platers to turn
their backs on cyanide copper,
which not only had very good corrosion protection and throwing
power, but was well-known to better
handle surface contaminants than
alkaline copper baths and could
often clean and plate at the same
time.
Providing the Same
CorroSion ProteCtion
Carraza says he is very happy with
the new bath that leaves out the
cyanide yet has the same corrosion
protection.
"Eric really saved me," he says.
"And to reduce that much time
is amazing. Going from an hour
to about 20 minutes is just a huge
savings. It has really made the difference in our operations, and we
have just as good a finish."
EPi says E-Brite Ultra Cu can plate
directly on steel, copper, brass,
stainless steel, zincated aluminum,
EN and sulfamate nickel, as well as
die-cast zinc surfaces, all without a
separate strike. Olander says it is
also a good pre-plate copper strike
for bright nickel, acid copper, tin
and solder plates, as well as an
excellent heat-treat stop-off and
EMI shield.
"It's great to help a company
bring work back to North America
and away from China," Olander
says. "That doesn't happen every
day, but when the opportunity
comes up, you want to see it be
successful." n
For more information on EPi, Electrochemical Products Inc., please call
262-786-9330 or visit EPi.com.
LearnMORE
Switch to Alkaline Non-Cyanide
Zinc Pays Off
Read how a plater reduced reject rates to less
than one percent and doubled production:
pfonline.com/articles/switch-to-alkalinenon-cyanide-zinc-pays-off.
pfonline.com 27