Which hazardous chemicals are used in zinc plating

(Full name next time please, Greg; this is a place of camaraderie and anonymity is incompatible with that).

A. There is strong movement away from the use of hexavalent chromium on zinc plated parts, which started with automotive parts because of a European Parliament directive (RoHS). But the answer to your question of whether there is hexavalent chromium on your fasteners is "possibly", but not if you specify otherwise. Good luck.

A. Hi Gil.

Galvanizing and zinc plating are very different. Galvanizing includes immersing the parts in molten zinc whereas zinc plating includes applying electricity to the parts while they are immersed in an aqueous solution of zinc salts (a proprietary zinc chloride process for example) to reduce the zinc ions to zinc metal. In either case, pretreatment cleaning and de-rusting, and post treatment are important parts of the process as well. Neither process is rocket science, but neither can be properly described in a paragraph or two either.

Jobshop services are available for both technologies, so you don't have to install in-house capability unless you want to. But if you do want to install in-house capability, it may be best to retain a consultant early on. If not, at least contact the purveyors of these processes. Just as you buy a forklift rather than a bunch of wheels and gears and components, you buy proprietary plating processes rather than formulating them from raw chemicals. Good luck.

Regards,