Letter 35088

Trivalent finish for aluminum [Iowa] 

+++++

I have a customer that wants us to provide his parts with Trivalent finish. This part is made from 5052H32 Aluminum. Is this possible to do? If not, are there any alternative suggestions?

Richard
Sheet metal fabrication - Cedar Rapids, IA, United States

Mil-C-5541 [link is to spec at TechStreet] chromate conversion coating of aluminum utilizes hexavalent chromium solutions. Due to concerns about hexavalent chromate an increasing number of suppliers offer proprietary trivalent treatments for aluminum or chrome-free treatments for aluminum. Many of finishing.com's supporting advertisers offer one or the other. They will probably contact you privately, or you can locate them with a little browsing of our Chemicals Directory.

Articles have been printed in the technical journals purporting to prove that these products are the equal of hexavalent chrome treatments although some disagree.

 
Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com Inc. - Brick, NJ

Chem. film has been around for years it is used to protect and /or prepare aluminum for painting. The most successful ones were patterned after Iridite or Alodine which are a trade marked names and contain hex chrome. Until recently trivalent chromates generally had little success replacing these materials. There is now a group of products that compare favorably with the hex chem. films. These should shortly be on the QPL list and meets or exceeds the requirements of MIL-C-5541.

Drew Nosti, CEF Anodize USA Ladson, SC

You can find very good free informations on next web page:
www.aluminum.org/TALAT/lectures/5202.pdf
Good luck!

Goran Budija
- Zagreb, Croatia

The link you gave us does not work can you provide a better address.

Drew Nosti, CEF
Anodize USA
Ladson, SC

You are right, You must use next address:www.aluminium.org
Then click on education and find conversion coatings lecture. Good luck!

Goran Budija
- Zagreb, Croatia

I'm with Drew. Spent 15 minutes twice now and I don't think it's there anymore.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com Inc. - Brick, NJ

This link will get you there

http://www.aluminium.org/education/TALAT/lectures/5202.pdf

Jabasingh Immanuel
- Chennai, India

Ed. note: Thanks for the info. As long as this thread is becoming a page of links to reports on non-hex aluminum treatments, here's a couple more:
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Group Interim Report on RoHS compliant alternatives to Hexavalent Chromium for Steel and Aluminium
ESTCP Phase I Report Non-Chromate Aluminum Pretreatments

I want to answer or follow-up on this subject publicly (in non-commercial fashion).

 

My company is a supporting advertiser at finishing.com and we want the contact information to reach the inquirer privately.

 

I want to post a new question or inquiry of my own on a different subject.