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What's the correct mixture of cyanide zinc bath

June 28, 2011

We are engaged Galvanizing work in Sri Lanka and when we galvanized the metal surface, in some places small patches and removed galvanizing in small areas. But we don't know why that happened . . . if it's incorrect mixture of galvanized chemicals or other thing; please explain.

Thanks and best regards

Kalyani

Kalyani Wanasinghe
Plating shop employee - Sri Lanka

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Hi, Kalyani.

Here in the USA we don't usually call zinc electroplating "galvanizing"; to us, galvanizing usually means dipping in molten zinc. To each his own, of course -- I'm just making sure that we are talking about the same process.

There are many different mixtures that are correct for cyanide zinc electroplating. In fact, they are called low-cyanide, high cyanide, and mid cyanide. And there are many steps in the process in addition to the plating step per se. If you can tell us as much as you can find out, and email a picture of the defects to mooney@finishing.com, we might be able to help a little. In the meanwhile, you must get access to a good book or two on cyanide zinc electroplating. The Metal Finishing Guidebook is a good one.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
June 2011