Governor's New Product Award

Engineers honor Electrochemical Products Inc.'s E-Brite 50/50 with a Certificate of Merit, Small Company Category.

The Wisconsin Society of Professional Engineers (WSPE) is honoring EPI, New Berlin, as part of the 30th Annual Governor's New Product Award (GNPA) program. The firm is one of 38 Wisconsin companies to be cited in 1999 for new product development.

Madison, May 14, 1999: The plating industry has been using cyanide as its complexor for silver plating for many years. EPA regulations, health and safety concerns, and more have made it very costly to plate silver from cyanide silver baths. Present alternative non-cyanide plating processes contain ammonia, have unstable chemistry, plate a yellow color and are difficult to control. EPI's E-Brite 50/50 alkaline non-cyanide silver process is superior because it is stable, has a wide operating window and requires only one plating tank.

Local Wisconsin silver platers can benefit from eliminating cyanide from their facilities, thus meeting EPA's Common Sense Initiative in reducing hazardous waste.

GNPA Competition Recognizes Premier Wisconsin Product Development

For three decades, the GNPA program has recognized Wisconsin manufacturers who contribute to the state's economic growth through development, manufacturing and marketing of new and innovative products. This premier competition is sponsored annually by WSPE in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. Conceived by Wisconsin engineers, the program was developed to focus on rapidly emerging technologies, recognize the contribution of engineers in new product development and encourage the pursuit of science and engineering careers.

Governor Thompson issues an annual invitation for Wisconsin companies to take part in the competition. In his 1999 invitation he said, "New product development generates new jobs, investment and improvements in our overall quality of life. I am committed to recognizing the contributions of engineers and scientists to economic growth and development." Wisconsin engineers are proud to be a part of meeting the Governor's challenge of "developing new products... to capitalize on emerging market opportunities".

Governor's Award for Excellence in Hazardous Waste Reduction

Sponsored by Wisconsin Department of Commerce and Federation of
Environmental Technologists
March 3, 1999

EPI has been a manufacturer of specialty chemicals for the metal finishing industry since 1954. Specifically, they manufacture proprietary chemical processes used in plating, black oxidizing, phosphating, metal cleaning and rust prevention. The company is based in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

EPI developed an alkaline copper plating process that has helped Wisconsin platers to eliminate or minimize cyanide copper in their facilities. This process has been in production for over six years.

EPI has recently developed an alkaline non-cyanide silver process that allows silver platers to eliminate cyanide from their facility. Many silver platers utilize cyanide copper and cyanide silver. Now they have the option to eliminate cyanide from their facility with a huge reduction of toxic waste.

If a metal finisher eliminates cyanide from his facility, this eliminates all the environmental paperwork for cyanide. Another advantage to the alkaline non-cyanide copper and silver processes is that it costs less to waste treat by only using calcium hydroxide (lime) versus sodium hypochlorite (bleach)/sodium hydroxide. So the metal finisher can eliminate another chemical, bleach, from his facility by switching to the processes.

Insurance companies will lower premiums with cyanide free processes, and local fire departments prefer the facility not to have cyanide.