Faced with new regulations restricting emissions of hexavalent chromium from various plating operations, along with increasing requests from a customer base for products that are environmentally preferable, our plating supplier has decided to switch from Hexavalent Chromate to Trivalent Chromate.

What does this mean to you?

Hexavalent Chromium is a known human carcinogen and has been on the list of chemicals to be banned. Over the years this ban has had an extension each year to allow chemical company’s time to develop a replacement.

Our supplier now offers a Trivalent Chromium chromate that surpasses the Hexavalent in salt spray testing - this means you will receive zinc plating with better corrosion protection at no extra cost. It does not have the same dying ability, and the results are much lighter in appearance than the gold colour we have previously offered, but we actually prefer the more silver look – hope you do too.

Industry changes

Due to the swing in the industry towards a safer equivalent many other electro-plating companies have already made the switch, forcing the demand for trivalent to increase. This in turn has made the trivalent product more affordable but also has pushed the Hexavalent cost up considerably.

Our suppliers are committed to providing our customers with the best possible quality.

We would like our customers to embrace this change and we are happy to talk to anyone should they require more information.