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Pretreatment process for zinc electroplating of heat treated parts

We're "zinc electroplating" service which uses Non Cyanide Process. Now, we've a problem with heat treated part which is most difficult to clean or pretreat before zinc plating. So, we would like anyone's advise on the cleaning or pretreatment method. How can we do proper cleaning before zinc plating?
Hope someone can help and solve this issue.

ARS SRP
Owner - Bangkok, Thailand
February 17, 2010

You probably have a difficult heat treat scale. Options are grit blast, bead blast or using a sequence of chemicals to break the oxide and get it to a point that the acid will etch the metal uniformly. This some times uses a permanganate step which is nasty.
Typically, it will involve the use of a heavily chelated alkaline cleaner, typically glutenates. Talk to your chemical vendors and look on line at a number of different chemical vendors to see what is available.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
February 18, 2010

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