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ACID DIP - How much acid will be consumed?

We have a brass insert fitting manufactured for us, in order to meet specific requirements the fitting needs to be acid dipped after production. Would anyone have any idea regarding approximately how many fittings can be dipped for each gallon of acid used. A brass TEE fitting weighs approximately 1.5 ozs. Any help offered would be very helpful

Frank Dapena
- USA
1999

Hey Frank,

Are you using the acid to Clean or Etch? What acid is it? It is normal to talk about the number of square feet of fittings run per gallon of acid. If the use is cleaning, you might run a new acid until you are unhappy with the results and then measure the acid content, amount of copper in the acid, and the number of parts treated. This would give you an end point for the useful life of the acid. Don't forget that a number of factors like: temp., dwell time, alloy, water dragin / dragout, etc. will change the square footage that can be run, so you need a safety margin. If the acid is an etch, you are most concerned by the etch rate change (weigh loss per unit time) as the acid weakens. Use the same methods to control the acid etch.

Regards,

Fred Mueller, CEF
- Royersford, Pennsylvania
1999