Proper way to strip chrome from steel

With my experience in plating, I ran into a job to where I had to strip chrome. I put the parts in muriatic acid until chrome was removed, Parts were masked with red goop. the muriatic acid ate through the goop and started attacking the chrome, pitting, black spots. what do I need to do in the future to prevent this from happening again?

Don't use muriatic acid would be a good start!

The usual way to strip chrome from steel is anodically in 10% caustic soda ⇦liquid caustic soda in bulk on Amazon [affil link] at approximately 2-4 Volts.

If you can't use an anodic process then the muriatic acid needs to be inhibited to reduce attack on the steel (such as 20g/l antimony trioxide) and keeping a close eye on the parts to ensure the parts are removed immediately stripping is complete, because this method will only reduce attack, not stop it.

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