Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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Hinge mfgr loses huge order to China, needs cheap brass-like finish

We had been supplying a small barrel plated hinge by the millions to a large door manufacturer. They just started buying from China to save money. Our product is very inexpensive. $.05 each. It was barrel plated with yellow, zinc and to make it look more like brass(reduce the iridescence) the finisher was dipping in lacquer. The lacquer doubled the finishing cost. Is there an inexpensive barrel finish that looks like brass but has the corrosion resistance of zinc?

Don B [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
Hinge manufacturing - Brookfield, Illinois, USA
2003

I sympathize with your situation, Don, but there is no way you can win a race to the bottom against China with its pool of slave labor, its currency manipulation, and its power over Washington. Is there any chance of finding a door manufacturer who is interested in a better finish rather than a crummier one? After all, this manufacturer is trying to fool the public into paying for these hinges as if they were brass, but they're unwilling to let them cost even a nickel??

My own experience and personal opinion is only that ... But in a lifetime of manufacturing work, including a stint with the manufacturing technology division of one of the big management consulting outfits, I've never seen a single cost-reduction program actually work. I assume that's because they are rooted on the belief that the quality of the product is too good or at least good enough, and that is never true! But effort directed towards finding better technologies often ultimately results not only in an improved product but in a lowered cost as well.

It might be worthwhile to describe the lacquering procedure and chemistry, but your finish is already simple and cheap, and I doubt that any obvious change in technology will dramatically reduce costs. Dip-spinning, e-coating, or plating a different metal will probably cost more. And I think the lacquer is substantially increasing your corrosion protection such that if you came up with a chromate that didn't need it for color, you'd want it for corrosion resistance anyway.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003