Acid Zinc Bath Contamination: Serious White Float Issue

Summary for acid zinc bath contamination Discussion

Acid zinc bath contamination is the issue here: the questioner reports white material floating on the surface of a chloride-based barrel zinc bath and being carried into nitric and passivation steps. The problem has been occurring for about two months, and the source is not yet traced. The process sequence given is degreasing, two water rinses, acid pickling, another rinse, acid activation, and barrel plating. No answer text is included in the excerpt, so the thread source only establishes the symptom and process context, not a diagnosis. The key practical takeaway is that the contamination is visible in the plating solution and is affecting downstream finishing, so the source likely needs to be traced through the pretreatment and plating line before the bath can be stabilized.