Background Much has been written in recent years about replacing environmentally hazardous hexavalent chromium electroplating solutions with trivalent ones for decorative chrome applications. Although hexavalent processes have been used for electroplating for over 65 years, they have serious environmental and performance problems associated with them.
Hexavalent chromium is a highly toxic material as well as a suspected carcinogen.
Its use poses a danger to human health, particularly to shop personnel, as well as to the environment. Hexavalent chromium can escape the plating line through spills, leaks, in discarded baths, rinses, and in a form of mist associated with hydrogen bubbles generated during plating operations. There are also performance deficiencies associated with hexavalent chromium use that result in many reject parts and other problems that cost a shop owner money. This necessitates the use of expensive chemicals such as sulfur dioxide, sodium metabisulfite or sodium borohydride. Also considerable hazardous sludge is generated during the neutralization step of the treatment process due to the high chromium concentration of the plating solutions.