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HOW TO ACHIEVE LEACHABLE-LEAD FREE SILVER PLATING ON BRASS

1999

We are manufacturers of Brass Decorative & Home Utility Items.

Recently we received a project to develop and produce a Coffee set comprising of a kettle, creamer & sugar bowl.

These items are made of a combination of sheet & cast brass, where the body is of sheet brass and the spout is of cast brass. The base (sheet) and the spout are welded to the main body by way of unleaded welds.

This set has a silver plated finish.

The issue is that the coffee set needs to have LEACHABLE LEAD content less than 0.2 ppm.

What should be the plating process where we can achieve the desired result of less than 0.2 ppm. We need to have an uniform plating between low current & high current density areas.

Kindly advise.

Many Thanks & Regards,

Raghav Gupta
- Moradabad, U.P., India

A few microns of cyanide copper under coat should help to reduce leached lead. The silver and copper baths must be lead free and the tanks should be either PVC or stainless Steel or any other compatible lead free material. Old style lead lined tanks will never give lead free plating Y.V.Deval

Yashawant Deval
electroplating shop - Pune, Maharashtra, India
1999

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1999

This is an issue that has been discussed earlier this year too.The problems are basically threefold:

1. The raw material used in casting in India is not consistent piece by piece
2. The quality of the solder used to attach the sprout to the pot
3. The coverage of the plating or coating in the recesses of the pots as well as inside the sprout

We discussed various alternatives including Nickel undercoating, electroless Nickel, Copper undercoats, but really no foolproof solution was possible at this forum because of the inconsistency in the raw material as well as the stringent standards required for lead leaching tests.

I do know of a certain gentleman who was in regular touch with me for a similar problem and who has done research on this in India and achieved some degree of success and perhaps you can contact him. I'm not sure but I think he is called Deepack Whorra. Maybe a solution is there I too would be interested in knowing about any success that you may achieve in this

regard

John Gurney
- Chicago, Illinois

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1999

A herculean effort would be needed to electroplate a coating which will prevent leaching of lead from a contaminated base metal for any kind of lifetime use of the tea service. For sure you will need:

• > 0.0002" of copper or nickel (is nickel a problem for food use now? )
• careful conforming anodes for the internal diameters of the vessels

It would be better to use lead free base metal to meet the requirements.

  
Tom Pullizzi
Falls Township, Pennsylvania