Alkaline Cyanide Free Zinc Electroplating Process

A. There are many ways for you to get more information. One of the easiest ways is to contact a plating chemical vendor, and have them give you a sales presentation. Chemical vendors have a good technical understanding of their products and are usually very willing to talk to you about their product.

For a more academic and unbiased understanding, you should try to get a copy of the Metal Finishing Guidebook which is published by Metal Finishing Magazine. The guidebook has articles on many plating processes including non cyanide alkaline zinc.

There is also a list of books on this website. You may also want to take an electroplating class. There are classes in the US, but I do not know if any are available in Turkey.

Those resources should give you the information you are looking for.

A. Dear Mrs. Kiray,

Do you want to eliminate the cyanide from your plant or to obtain a standard which is requested from your customer.

Regards,

A. Alkaline non-cyanide zinc will give you a product that is basically equivalent to cyanide zinc. The alkaline non-cyanide zinc solutions are so caustic that they dissolve the zinc anodes even without current, so you will probably want slightly different equipment including a separate 'generation' tank where the zinc is dissolved.

Zinc-iron offers a reliable black chromate, which is one reason for its use, but I have been told that it is also better in corrosion resistance. Ditto on the corrosion resistance of zinc-nickel only more so.

All of these newer approaches are proprietary, so, as Tim says, talk to the suppliers.

A. Alkaline zinc plating solution is considered to be the best zinc plating process nowadays and not only because it eliminates cyanide but mainly because the throwing power is great. The metal distribution is fantastic. You can get almost an even distribution of deposit thickness even on a geometrically complicated part. It reminds an EN process.

The zinc-iron, zinc-nickel and zinc-cobalt have great corrosion resistance and their black chromates are silver free. Silver free chromate means lower cost and no tendency for the black chromate to turn green.

Well, the internet turns the world into a small place, my dear friend FREDY YARKAN from Turkey, it was nice to meet you here. You have a nice web site!

A. Hi Sanket. Alkaline zinc is extremely caustic. When it's operated correctly, the alkalinity alone is sufficient to dissolve the zinc. Despite your voltage and amperage readings, I suspect that something is amiss with the electricity and the zinc plating is simply dissolving, as would be expected, into the plating solution.

Regards,

A. Hi Sanket,

You have problem plating dissolve in alkaline zinc bath, check the electrical is right, make sure no parts at bottom of the tank cause bipolarity, and check your zinc bath chemistry is right.