Letter 42066

Metal Plating (URGENT)! [California] 

August 29, 2006

I am in the lighting industry. Our suppliers make metal brackets, metal fasteners, and etc. for us. When we do the salt spray test on their products, it often comes out slighly corrosive (looks like burnt fragment). We do salt spray test for 12 hours. 8 hours of fog humidity and four hours of oven. Is that acceptable? What we fear most is that by the time it reaches the States (we are located in Asia), the metal will have been corroded and rusting. PLEASE HELP!!!

Also, if the plated metals are yellowish but not corroding, is that normal?

PS---our plating is blue.

Bob McQueen
Lighting - Berkeley, CA, USA

If you have an urgent problem, please retain a plating consultant, Bob! This is merely a public forum, and authoritative replies may come next month or never; we can't go around knocking on people's doors to alert them that you have an urgent problem and demand that they immediately come to finishing.com and help you :-)

I am guessing that you are dealing in zinc plating. An 8-hour humidity test is rather mild. The thing is, someone is responsible for designing these brackets and fasteners, and part of that responsibility is to write plating specs and performance specs. Without knowing anything about your product line, even whether it's for interior or exterior use, it's very difficult for anyone to suggest what testing spec you should be using, but 24 hours of neutral salt spray seems more appropriate to me than 8 hours of humidity testing.

After plating adequately to survive 24 hours of NSS, packaging will have a lot to do with whether the parts can survive their ocean journey. Good luck.

P.S.: please clarify whether your name is Danny Yu or Bob McQueen, and whether you are located in Beijing or Berkeley

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

Mr Bob Mc Queen

Blue chromated Zinc is expected to last for much longer than you find your plated parts surviving Salt spray.

As advised by Mr Ted Mooney , please find a plating consultant familiar with China and speaks English and Chinese so that communication is easy.

Regards,

Asif Nurie Atlanta Global Limited New Delhi, India

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