Electrochemicals Blog - EPI - Electrochemical Products Inc.

May 14th, 2008

By Eric Olander

 Interesting result with  two black oxide processes,  Ultra Blak 400hot black oxide and  Insta Blak 333room temperature blackening, they provide an excellent anti-galling surface on steel parts. What is anti-galling? Anti-galling is necessary to break in mating parts, the anti-galling surface sacrifices the lubricating layer of black during the initial contact and abrasion while a work hardened surface is formed. An example of this is drill bits and also concrete nailing hammers. A  blackened drill bit when it first touches the steel being drilled into serves as a lubricant to the steel that is being drilled into. After that drilling operation the drill bit is surfaced hardened ready to take on other drilling operations. Another application by one of EPI's customer was concrete  nailing guns. The Insta Blak 333  process actually provided better anti-galling  results than the hot black oxide processes. The Insta Blak process resulted in the appropriate torque values for that anti-galling situation  in concrete nailing guns that the hot black oxide process could not, it was too hard.

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May 7th, 2008

By Eric Olander

EPi is starting to pack for Sur/Fin 2008 in Indianapolis,IN June 16th-18th, 2008. We are excited to see everyone again and also to talk about our products. Eric Olander will be session chair Track II Automotive Symposium Conversion Coatingsand a speaker on June 17th,2008 2-5 PM. The session I will be chairing is the about the latest developments on trivalent chromates for aluminum and zinc surfaces. My paper will discuss the latest developments on trivalent yellow chromates since our paper on E-Chrome Ultra Yellow last year in Cleveland,OH .  Some customers have been concerned about the color being to green. We will be announcing a new yellow-red version that is not as green as the  E-Chrome Ultra Yellow. Another subject that I will discuss is the diphenyl carbazide challenge brought up by Tom Rochester in Plating Surface Finishing October 2007 issue.

 Bring your I-pods for copper plating! Late last year Popular Science did an experiment using our E-Brite Ultra CUalkaline non cyanide copper process on plating the back of I-pods with this process. At Sur/Fin we will be  free offering copper plating to the back of your I-pod.  Sid Arthur  EPI's Senior Technical Service Engineer will be offering this service during the show. We also will be giving two I-pod's away during the show. One on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday. See you at Sur/Fin!

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May 6th, 2008

By Eric Olander

EPI's E-Brite 757 nickel plating process is know for its excellent coverage in rack and barrel applications. What we have found with this nickel plating process is that it plates more nickel in the low current density area, approximately 20-33% more nickel than other nickel processes. On long tube parts we have found that you will achieve the minimum thickness faster, which means for the nickel plater less nickel usage per part saving the plater money.

In barrel applications you will achieve excellent ductility and brightness with the E-Brite 757 . Masterlock uses the E-Brite 757 on its shackles that you see on their combination and laminated locks.

Another fact is this process gives excellent chrome coverage. I remember one customer who is used the E-Brite 757 process on a bed spring display that was 2 feet by 3 feet by 6 inches deep. The chrome covered the entire bedspring area including the deep recesses. The other processes left nickel showing.

Posted in Electroplating, Nickel Plating | No Comments »

April 29th, 2008

By Eric Olander

Goodrich Corporation's Advanced Sensors Technical Center sent EPI's lab in New Berlin, WI samples of Kovar parts for blackening. Their challenge was that the traditional stainless steel blackening of 416 series was more grey than black. Kovar contains a high amount of nickel 29% and cobalt 17% metals. Larry Abbott tried our Ultra Blak 465, hot black oxide process for nickel. Attached is an SME picture taken at 10,000x magnification. Goodrich likes the uniform black color because it was black with no grey which works better for their light sensor applications.

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April 25th, 2008

By Eric Olander

This week I attended the NASF's Washington DC forum April 22-24, 2008. There was an excellent line up of speakers that talked about the present and future issues; Competing against China, Fume Suppressants and alternatives to PFOS surfactants systems, REACH, Homeland Security, Nanotechnology, Patent Reform, Fred Barnes from Fox News, Climate Change Policy,Global Metals Outlook, Energy Policy,  EU nickel regulation, and an update from NAM. The last day I went to Capitol Hill to visit my WI Senators and Congress members. I actually  meet with Congressman Kind, see the picture in this blog. Congressman Kind is working  hard for manufacturing and trying to hold down health care costs. We had an excellent discussion on the issues and I also informed him of Richard C. Longworth's book "Caught in the Middle" which  I blogged out before.  I have been going to DC for 10 years now. I was there when 9/11 happen and going there helps me keep in touch with the aides of the Senator and Congress members. The aides are the ones that handle the issues for the Representatives.

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April 3rd, 2008

By Eric Olander

I participated in the annual NASF Milwaukee Branch Five Minute Supplier showdown held on April 1st,2008 This quick five minute presentation was about the Diphenyl Carbazide(DC) , indicating hexavalent chrome after ASTM B-117 salt spray testing, controversy that Tom Rochester discussed in the October 2007 issue of Plating Surface Finishing magazine. Tom discovered that you take a trivalent chromate and test it with DC prior to salt spray and it tests negative for hex chrome. After ASTM B-117 salt spray the test  was positive.

EPi we used the test method ISO 3613:2000(E) section 5.6 using a spectrophotometer both prior and after salt spray with negative results in both tests. We also tested our E-Chrome Ultra Blue and E-Chrome Ultra Yellow using Tom Rochester method after salt spray. We found out that our trivalent chromates do not test positive using the DC method.

Eric also talked briefly on a new trivalent yellow E-Ultra Yellow 300 that will be coming out this summer . Eric will be giving a more detail about this presentation on June 17th,2008 at Sur/Fin's technical conference Automotive Symposium Track II at 2-5 PM in Indianapolis, IN at the Indy Convention center.

Posted in Eric Olander Happenings, Metal Finishing, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

March 17th, 2008

By Eric Olander

On March 11 and 12 I participated in Microsoft's Convergence trade show held in Orlando,FA at the Orange County Convention Center. On Tuesday I gave a presentation on how our switch to Microsoft Navision Dynamics Version 4.0 is working and the benefits we have seen at EPI   like faster reporting less time to QC and a platform that does not crash. Microsoft has released version 5.0 and is working on a version Navision 2009, which is something we are looking at. The next 5- 10 years  offering many opportunities for companies to capitalize on technology changes. We were fortunate to hear Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer discuss Microsoft's future and their commitment to business solutions for companies today like the Navision products we use today. We hope later this year to implement a new MSDS module and also to implement on of Microsoft's CRM solution that will work together with our Navision solution so that we can move EPi  with the technology gaining efficiencies and leading the way to help meet our customers needs.

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March 8th, 2008

By Eric Olander

Here am I sitting on one of Harley Davidson's latest models  on March 4, 2008. I took a tour of Harley Davidson's Powertrain facility located on Capitol Ave in Milwaukee,WI. The local NASF Milwaukee branch of  58 members  toured the facility. Many of the people on the tour supply Harley Davidson through plating some of their parts or through supplying their chemistry like EPi's E-Kleen 190, E-Brite 23-11R/ Electrosolv and E-Brite 200 processes that are used for cleaning and copper plating on aluminum Harley Davidson parts.

One interesting fact on the assembly line is the Harley does not run one model through the line they run many different models so there challenge is to have the correct parts there for assembly for that specific motor. The assembly line offers more flexibility this way. After assembly all Harley engine are tested prior to shipping.  Harley Davidson is utilizing world class manufacturing techniques in their plant to produce a superior product.

Posted in Copper Plating, Eric Olander Happenings | No Comments »

March 6th, 2008

By Eric Olander

One of EPI's strengths is developing custom formulations for its customers. Today taking the formula off the shelf always does not work today as customers have individual needs. Barrett Plating challenged us to develop a hexavalent chromate that is blue without any yellow color and that has at least 72 hours salt spray.  The EPi team of Larry Abbott  Chemist and Sid Arthur  Senoir Technical Service started working  together in EPi's lab in New Berlin, WI. Through the testing we actually found that the salt spray results exceeded 96 hours almost approaching 150 hours. This chromate is called E-Chrome 859. Another benefit of the E-Chrome 859 is that it produces a brighter blue finish. The E-Chrome 859 actually polishes the zinc plated surface.

Posted in Metal Finishing, Trivalent Chromates | No Comments »

February 27th, 2008

By Eric Olander

Richard C. Longworth's book Caught in the Middle hits a home run on what is going on in the Midwest with the global market. Dick's book discusses how the global market has changed the Midwest's main-street make up with the new model that corporate America is implementing, that is global sourcing and immigration of Mexican workers to the Midwest. Newton, IA use to be the headquarters to Maytag, but Whirlpool purchased Maytag and most of those Maytag workers no longer have jobs. Iowa and Newton have lost a large partner to the Iowan economy that was victim to the new rules of running a company global markets. They have to reeducate themselves to become the worker that corporate America wants today, college educated workers. The city of Seattle has about 40% of it population that had a four year degree. The city of Milwaukee has about 15%.

I am going to step back form Richard's book.Perry, IA is where my uncle and aunt have lived for most of their lives. The last six years has brought lots of change to this community. Tyson has a meat plant in Perry that uses Mexican immigrants for its employees. They start out at $12.00/hour for a job. Perry is about 7,000 people and today is about 35% immigrants. The challenge is that these workers send there money back down to Mexico instead of keeping it in Perry. On pay day at the local Hy-Vee grocery store there is a Perry police officer that stands guard now. Perry has had two murders in the last few years. To save money 4-6 immigrant families are moving into rental homes. The stately homes on main street are run down now. My uncle was in an accident with one of the local immigrants and the immigrant had no insurance. Iowa has a law that every one is suppose to have insurance. One of my customers in Iowa had the same thing happen when they had an accident with an immigrant. At the end of the day there was not much that happen to the Mexican immigrant who had no insurance for there car. Are we developing into two countries that has two sets of rules within the USA? Immigrant vs Born in America. We can not have two sets of rules or two countries.

Back to Dick's book. He is asking for the Midwest to work together to take on the global competition of today. This includes universities, companies, schools, and the governments. If something is not done to address this there are going to be a lot of more Perry,Iowas throughout the Midwest and eventually the towns will die. So if you are in the Midwest you need to read this book and pass it onto your friend and neighbor. Try this link below to get the book.

Caught In The Middle

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