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Alternative to acid pickling

Respected Sir
We have a factory making Co2 welding wire , we at present use sulfuric acid for pickling , however we find that due to negligence of our workers in washing the coils after acid pickling leads to problems in copper coating the wire.
Is there a alternative to acid pickling?.
Or is there a alternative menthod of acid washing.

Shreeram Prabhudesai
welding consumables - India
2005

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First of two simultaneous responses --

Mechnical descale for rod for breakdown.

Colin Steward
- West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
2005

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

What are the problems?
There are other pickling methods, some more aggressive and others not. e.g., HCl ..
You should be aware that with any chemical used, great care needs to be taken in handling and usage. Neg. is dangerous in a plating shop, but these things happen.

Gary Joseph
Johannesburg,
South Africa
2005

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Mr.Shree ram

Try using Inhibitors.
This inhibits attck of Acid on the substrate and prevrnt etching.This conditions and activate substrate for further processing.

T.K. Mohan
plating process supplier - Mumbai, India
2005

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What kind of inhibitors should I use ?
The major problem is that due to negligence in washing the acid , The acid remains on the wire and the copper coating is not uniform ,due to which the base wire corrodes due to attack of moisture.
Please help

Shreeram Prabhudesai
- Mumbai, India
2005

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While inhibiters help with the attack and the steel while in the pickling bath, try agitating the rinse cycle by air and warm up the solution.

Gary Joseph
Johannesburg,
South Africa
2005

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2005

Hello Mr S Prabhudesai;

After pickling and double dunk rinsing, keep your coils in a drum of water containing 20 gms per litre of Sodium Bicarbonate. These drums can be placed under your wire pick up station before the plating tank begins.

The bicarb is mild enough to neutralise and also ensure a good pickup of plating.

Buy me dinnner or buy my plating chemicals after you have solved this problem.

Good luck;

Khozem Vahaanwala
Saify Ind

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India