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-----Pretreatment of hot rolled steel for Electroplating
Q. My company recently installed an acid chloride zinc plating line and we are in the process of trying to optimize its cycle times. We are seeing that parts made from cold rolled steel will plate fine with a standard soak soap, electro-soap, HCl acid, plate cycle. However, any parts made from hot rolled steel require sometimes two and three repeated cycles through HCl acid and electrosoap processes to remove all the mill scale prior to plating. We have a little bit of space left in the room we've installed this line in and are contemplating whether to put in a secondary pretreatment only line or if there is a self-contained parts washing system that would work to remove the mill scale from parts of this nature. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Taylor Eckert- Topeka, KS
October 21, 2025
A. Hi Taylor. There are 'parts washers' but to my knowledge they aren't made for acid. I wonder if doing mechanical pretreatment (vibratory finisher, tumbler with media) might not be a better pretreatment for removing mill scale from the hot rolled steel if these are parts rather than large sheets?
Luck & Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
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