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Chrome & Chelates

I would like to know if chelates are a residual product in the chroming process?

Dave Beck
- Carthage, NY

I suspect that the answer to your question is "No", Dave, but . . .

As discussed in e-mail, I think you would get far more useful responses if you would spend a little more time formulating your question, Mr. Beck. I don't know whether your concern is about chelates affixed to the chrome plated part, or chelates in the rinse wastewater, or chelates accumulating in the chrome plating tank. I don't know whether the application is hard chrome plating or decorative plating, or whether the solution you are talking about is conventional chrome-sulfuric, or dual catalyst, or high efficiency etch-free, or a proprietary thin dense chrome.

I don't know whether you mean to use 'chelate' in the strict sense or in the more liberal sense (as many people do today) to refer to any complexing agent. In a very broad interpretation of your question, I might even imagine that you might be trying to precipitate the chrome without first reducing it, and that you are naturally being unsuccessful, and that you might really be asking why you are having trouble.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com
Brick, New Jersey

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