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Carpenter, a lawyer by training, has been in the pretreat- ment industry since 1992 when she and husband Scott met the inventor of one-step metal pretreatment. The relationship grew over time, and they established Carpenter Chemicals to distribute the product in the North American market. The Plaforization system was designed by PaiKor Chemical (a company that eventually became Chemtec) in Italy in the 1960s. The system operates in a processing cycle that includes a treatment phase of just one minute followed by a several- minute draining phase where excess liquid is recovered, and then a drying phase in which Carpenter says fluid flash-off and organic passivating polymerization take place. The application can be by sprayed or dipped, but it starts with the oily contaminants being dissolved in the Ecophor The music stands can be powder coated in a variety of colors. Chemtec installed its Plaforization system, an organic phosphating technology designed to degrease and phosphate metal surfaces in a one-step operation. chemicals that make up the Plaforization process. The phos- phoric acid then reacts with the surface, building a micro chemical bridge in the process. The liquids then evaporate and an organic polymeric film of about 1 micron thick is deposited to create what Carpenter says is a homogeneous and continuous seal on the treated surface "There is no water pollution, because no water is used in the process," she says. "There is no solid waste to treat, because no sludge is created." No Bath Dumps More importantly, the treatment bath is never changed if the average amount of oils on the parts does not exceed 14 gm/100 square feet, which is actually more than four times the oil normally found on cold rolled steel. In addition, Carpenter says there are no VOC emissions, HAPs, CFCs, ozone-depleting substances, carcinogens or mutagens. The Plaforization processes are single-stage with no rinse, and thus have a smaller footprint than typical systems. Carpenter says they are less expensive to operate, have fewer and smaller fans and pumps, and there is nothing spent on natural gas to heat tanks because it is a room-temperature process. In addition, bath checks need to be cond`ucted only every other month. The process oils on the parts are not skimmed and disposed like a conventional system, Carpenter says, but are used to contribute flexibility to the topcoat. "The organic microfilm can absorb the oily contaminants into its three-dimensional structure," she says. "The oils are used as plasticizers, which add flexibility to the film and improves adhesion and chip-resistance. The oils become inert components that actually improve performance." Plaforization can work on nearly all metal substrates, she 30 SEPTEMBER 2015 — pfonline.com PRETREATMENT