Chrome Plating – An Informative Article
Q: Why have we been out of stock on items that have a chrome finish?
A: Vendors in the UK are typically taking 6 months to supply any part that is chrome. We have not had any hard answers but one can deduce from reading related articles on the web. One vendor mentioned something along the lines of there being limits on how much chrome plating a UK company can do. More than likely the proposals to ban decorative hexavalent chrome has caused shops to close leaving an even smaller pool of available platers in the UK.
Prior to Brexit (the exit of Great Britain from the European Union) the plan was to ban decorative chrome finishes by the early 2020’s. We were not sure how the exit from the EU would affect chrome plating shops in England. Would they still comply with the decision or not?
Even China is beginning to crack down on heavy metal pollution. Our Chinese sources are having a hard time finding platers willing to do small runs. The only factories allowed access to chrome are those with a plating shop in house. A vendor recently had to scrap an entire batch of Norton P11 exhaust pipes due to poor chrome from a Chinese source. Emgo has just announced their muffler factory will be closing September 2024.
“Lustrous chrome has been a staple of glitzy automotive and motorcycle styling ever since Colin Fink and Charles Eldridge developed a commercially viable plating process at Columbia University in 1924.
So it is not surprising that articles in the new-car press on the EU’s ostensibly contentious decision to outlaw chrome plating in 2024 over health and environmental concerns has raised more than a few eyebrows.
An outright ban on chrome plating would have consequences that extend far beyond the classic car world, as the material is prevalent in products ranging from kitchenware and light fittings to aviation components and firearms.
News of the EU’s proposed ban follows a similar yet more drastic move by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which intends to ban hexavalent chromium in decorative plating by 2027. More significantly, CARB’s ban also prohibits hexavalent chromium’s use for industrial durability plating commonly used in aerospace, by 2039.
According to CARB, the ban is necessary because harmful emissions from the plating process disproportionately endanger the health of people living in disadvantaged communities. The gases emitted during hexavalent chrome manufacture have been found to be 500 times more toxic than diesel fumes. Harmful emissions from the process can be lessened by chemical depressants, but these contain Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are also highly toxic and have been irresponsibly released into waterways. Likely government regulation costs, placed on platers, have forced them to find less reputable companies to dispose of their waste products. The result being ground water being polluted with heavy metals. I think of the city of Flint, Michigan that changed their municipal water supply source from the Detroit-supplied Lake Huron water to the Flint River. The switch caused water distribution pipes to corrode and leach lead and other contaminants into municipal drinking water. Efforts to reduce the costs of delivering water to the city of Flint had unintended consequences.
Significantly, the impact of the EU’s own intended legislation on decorative chrome plating in the automotive industry is lessened by the existence of an alternative process, known as trivalent plating. This means that the notion of the EU banning chrome plating outright is a red herring.
“My father-in-law set up the company in 1982. He was a qualified chemist, and heard about trivalent plating after it was developed in the US. He knew that at some point, hexavalent plating would be banned because it isn’t very environmentally friendly, so he took a gamble and decided to have a go at trivalent plating. It took him two years to master the finish, and at one point he nearly decided to give up and go back to hex chrome.
“Switching to trivalent was a risk, because it’s a totally different process that requires new equipment and a completely different mix of chemicals. The government has talked about banning hexavalent for years, and now they’re finally doing it. So chroming companies are either switching to trivalent or they’re going to stop chrome plating altogether.”
In other words, if the legislation passes, companies will be forced to invest significant sums of money in new chemicals and equipment, as well as being required to master a completely different process. For consumers, there will be a few consequences.
The first is cost. Trivalent plating is more expensive than the traditional hexavalent method. “We pay about £1000 a week extra in chemicals, but that’s the cost of being more environmentally friendly,” Simon explains. That said, some of the extra cost is offset by the fact that the trivalent plating requires less energy, while the reduced amount of harmful by-products are easier to dispose of.
More controversially, there is also a slight cosmetic difference between hexavalent and trivalent chrome. The chromium deposits produced from hexavalent electrolytes appear silver with a subtle blueish tinge, while those formed from trivalent chromium baths typically have a subtly smokier appearance. Even so, Simon explained that it is also possible to introduce various chemicals that can alter the appearance of trivalent chrome finishes:
“My father-in-law developed several trademarked finishes. He was messing about with chemicals one day, and came up with a duller chrome finish that mimics the appearance of stainless steel. We can also replicate mild steel that’s a third of the cost to the customer.”
The main drawback of the trivalent method is that it can’t yet be used to manufacture the hard chrome required for aerospace components, for example. This, however, is largely irrelevant in the context of automotive styling, as large manufacturers can simply make the switch from hexavalent to trivalent chrome once the ban is enacted in 2024. Aerospace firms, meanwhile, could well be given special exemptions that allow them to continue to manufacture hex chrome until a viable alternative is developed for certain components.
Those hardest hit by the legislation will be small chrome-plating firms without the means or expertise to switch to an entirely new manufacturing method.”
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Excerpt from B and B Precision UK website
Some are less optimistic about the new process:
“Would this mean that Chrome Plating utilizing Trivalent Chromium is possible? The answer is yes and no. Trivalent Chrome Plating has been tried and developed but is not yet largely commercially available. As a process it is only suitable for coatings a few millionths of an inch thick, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Decorative Chrome Plating is actually a layer of Nickel Plating with a chromium flash and so for these sorts of applications, Trivalent based Chromium may be an option. We would expect to see a commercial push for Decorative Chrome Plating using Trivalent Chrome in the near future.
The question is then, whether or not a Trivalent Hard Chrome Plating option is a viable alternative? When asked if Trivalent based Hard Chrome could replicate the results of the current process, Ted Mooney of Finishing.com says “My understanding is that it can’t because the process is still only suitable for coatings of a few millionths of an inch thick, not several thousandths.” This means that thick, dense coatings would not be possible with Trivalent Hard Chrome. This is a key factor in the corrosion and wear resistance properties of Hard Chrome to begin with and as such a suitable alternative is still needed.
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One UK manufacture of exhaust products, for British motorcycles, has decided to close his business rather than fight with the new plating process. Many of the smaller shops that do the plating in small volume will not be able to afford the switch to the new plating method.
Recently we had the displeasure of selling, what we believe were, some of the new trivalent chrome fork cap nuts. Upon tightening the chrome chipped and peeled off in a single sheet. So either the new, environmentally friendly, process is not as resilient as traditional chrome or the learning curve in its application is steep. This is why we will be stocking stainless options where available.
“Chromium Steel” (as the Brits use to call it) or stainless steel is a option to replace some parts. Stainless can be polished to resemble chrome. It is resistant to rust and won’t chip or flake like chrome. Stainless steel is relatively new to the vintage motorcycle industry. So we have only had limited experience using stainless for parts like exhaust pipes and mufflers. A vendor in Thailand made some Triumph 650 Unit pipes and mufflers over a decade ago. They all sold and looked nice initially. We did encounter that the pipes had a tendency to yellow along much of their length. Though they don’t turn blue like chrome headers (stainless blues at nearly double the temperature F than that of carbon steel). This is something that will need to explored further. Stainless parts have the appeal of being infinitely more durable as they can be re-polished repeatedly.
This article was not meant to alarm but to inform of changes to products we will be encountering. Any chroming you wish to have done should be done soon. In California most of the chrome is shipped to Mexico for processing. But who knows how long this will be an option.
Nick Willcutt