Powdertech Corby has made a significant investment in its metal finishing facility by installing a £500K chrome-free pre-treatment line for aluminium and galvanized steel.
The company says the new plant will be one of the most up-to-date facilities in the UK, offering fully automated multi-metal pre-treatments ahead of the EU REACH legal requirement to end chrome-based processes by September 2017.
Using chrome in pre-treatment processes for powder coating is long established but chrome has been identified as a carcinogen. Approximately half of the large architectural plants in Europe now have chrome-free production lines. The chrome-free chemical process has been seven years in development and testing and has been benchmarked against existing technology.
Installation of the new plant at Powdertech’s Corby base was carried out over the Christmas break in order to minimise disruption to clients.
Richard Besant, director at Powdertech Corby, said: “Applicators who believe they can simply change their chemicals from chrome-6 (hexavalent) technology to chrome-free technology will experience technical issues as any chrome left in the system will contaminate the new chemicals. Significant capital and technical investment is necessary to successfully operate the new process.”
Powdertech Corby says that aside from the obvious health and environmental benefits of eliminating a carcinogen, chrome-free brings important benefits to powder coating systems: the plant will utilise computer controlled automated material transporters, process monitoring and chemical dosing to ensure rigid process control, with a larger operating envelope.
