Molybdenum Phosphate plating/coating on steel sheetmetal

I am the Mechanical engineering Supervisor for R & D new product development. Presently we plate our steel units with Zinc Chromate finish and would be interested in alternate plating/coating materials.

In reference to an article in Sep 1999 Assembly magazine, entitled "The Signal for Success", I learned of a company that has replaced Zinc chromate with Molybdenum Phosphate plating. The article notes cost savings, environmental issues, and superior shielding benefits, via the Molybdenum Phosphate plating. I am looking for information & specifications for the Molybdenum Phosphate plating. Also, I would be open to talking with sales/technical reps for obtaining samples and or plating our steel sheet metal product for evaluation. Thanks, Alan Wardlow

If there is a molybdenum phosphate plating, it is extremely new. Moly can be plated , with difficulty, as an alloy with things like nickel, cobalt, etc., but there was no known commercially available way to plate moly a few years ago.

Manganese phosphate is a phosphate coating and not a plating that has been around for years, primarily for a break in compound on friction surfaces. It is normally a coarse rough dark black finish that has good wear properties and decent rust prevention capabilities. It is much higher priced than iron or zinc phosphate.

Alan Emailed me the web site of the company. They are touting a molybdenum infused iron phosphate. I have no idea of what THEY mean by infused and they certainly do not give any details. I am suspect of new products that are full of boasts and are very light on technical data or operating conditions. Molybdenum disulfide has been around for years as a dry film lubricant that is a second operation after phosphating and works well.

It is possible that they did actually develop a means of having some co-deposit with the phosphate, but I would approach it with extreme caution, and run several sets of test parts.