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Automotive Decorative Finishes – Seminar

Automuseum – Ladenburg, Germany 2nd – 3rd June 2014

2

nd and 3

rd of June 2014 was the date for the MacDermid

Decorative Automotive supply chain seminar. The seminar was held at the prestigious Automuseum in Ladenburg, Germany. The gathering was to inform delegates on the implications of REACh directive in the Plating On Plastic industry. Additionally MacDermid unveiled some exciting innovative hexavalent chromium-free pretreatment and plating technology.

The meeting was opened by Mr. Massimo Garzone, Executive VP of ASF Europe and IS R&D and Marketing and Mr. Thomas Dyllus Geschäftsführer MacDermid GmbH. They explained the increasing globalization of the surface finishing industry and business, emphasized innovation into greener technology areas and interrelation with the automotive supply chain as being key strategic areas for MacDermid Industrial Solutions division.

Following the introduction, the discussion moved to how REACh directives will potentially affect the Plating on Plastics supply base in Germany. As a member of CTAC, MacDermid’s Product Safety Manager, Mr. Brian Haste opened this section outlining the options for POP applicators. Continuing this theme, Dr. Trevor Pearson, MacDermid R&D Director, outlined our research initiatives for hexavalent chromium replacements. These include decorative trivalent chromium plating and chromium-free etching of plastics. The delegates were looking forward to production case studies on both of these topics later in the seminar. The section on environmental, health and safety was concluded by keynote speaker Mr. Ulrich Föst from BAUA. He introduced a stage model for assessing alternatives to hexavalent chromium, emphasizing that the ultimate goal is substitution.

Mr. Garzone opens the meeting

Mr. Föst - BAUA

Delegates arrive at the museum

We then moved to the second session which focused on OEM testing and market adoption of decorative trivalent chromium plating technology. Our second keynote speaker was Dipl. Ing. Marina Engelking of Volkswagen AG. This was a presentation that applicators plating to automotive standards were very keen to understand the direction of leading global automotive manufacturers. Mrs. Marina Engelking outlined the increasing use of calcium and magnesium chloride as de-icing salts in Germany. Along with inclusion of foreign particles (i.e. brake dust), this now causes increased corrosion of nickel and chromium plating. Due to this VW are now re-assessing their laboratory corrosion tests, resulting in two new accelerated tests: VW PV 1073-A and PV 1073-B. These methods were presented to the audience and will be implemented into the technical specification Volkswagen TL 528 for chromium plated surfaces MacDermid Marketing Managers Mr. John Thompson (America’s), Mr. Akihiko Hasibe (Japan) and OEM Key Account Manager Mr. Rainer Lakner (Europe) explained to the audience the market adoption of trivalent chromium plating processes in these key markets. In both the USA and Japan, many automotive manufacturers specify and receive product plated components in this technology. France OEM’s have also now approved trivalent chromium plating. In Germany the process is still at the evaluation stage. Some key points from this discussion included:

• The use of trivalent chromium plating was initiated because of road salt corrosion. • In America a USCAR task force has been initiated to achieve a unified test method for

calcium chloride corrosion resistance.

• Generally the preferred technology globally is sulphate based. The third session began with our next keynote speaker, Olaf Hawlitschek from OFT Döbeln. This was a case study into reasons for (OFT) installing the trivalent chromium plating process. These included:

• Health and saftey requirements directed by local authorities.

• Technical benefits (improved covering power)

• The company then not being subject to statutory restrictions on hazardous incidents.

• Innovation in OFT’s supply chain. These benefits were summarized as: "The introduction to decorative trivalent chromium plating is a real success story. We are prepared for the future and MacDermid's TriMacIII is for us, a problem solver. The conversion to decorative trivalent chromium plating has been of course economically viable. Moving forward we continue to work very closely with MacDermid to maximize coating thickness and plating speed”.

Mrs. Engelking – VW

Mr. Hawlitschek, OFT

With the delegates suitably impressed by the success story of trivalent chromium plating, the next presentation further stimulated interest in decorative hexavalent chromium-free plating technology…Chromium-free etching for plastic.

MacDermid’s R&D and Marketing Director, Mr. Terry Clarke opened this talk by outlining the conventional, direct / short and Ionic cycles currently employing chromic acid etching. He then explained the challenges to etching ABS / ABS-PC without chromium before unveiling the new chromium-free process cycle. This new patented process, which is chromium, PFOS, SVHC and permanganate-free, requires no extra process tanks or processing times when compared to conventional metallization cycles. Platers will also be able to realize reduced rejects as there is no longer issues with airborne chromium mist, a major cause of rejects in Plating on Plastic! Mr. Clarke then introduced a case study of the chromium-free etch production. Production is currently meeting automotive standards and has demonstrated etch topography and adhesion values (measured by peel strength) similar to chromic acid based processes. This has been achieved on many ABS / ABS-PC blends and alloys. This new process can also be used in selective plating where a resist has been used. Interestingly the process control is easier and solution analysis faster than chromic acid etches! The etch has a regeneration cell which ensures process consistency and economic viability. Finally rack plating has been overcome by two approaches: (i) A rack inhibitor - applied during the rack stripping process (ii) A new rack PVC coating - Contains an anti-plating inhibitor in the coating The new chromium-free etching process is called...evolve.

The final technical presentation was delivered by the MacDermid Decorative Products Director, Lammert DeBoer. He reviewed the MacDermid hexavalent chromium-free range of Fashion Finishes. These include smokey and dark chromium coatings and satin nickel processes. Additionally it is now possible to color the metallic plated plastic using Electrolac UV. Implementation of these processes has been worldwide.

This was demonstrated by showing various vehicle models using the MacDermid Fashion Finish coatings. Finally Q-Klad was presented, a unique approach to testing, controlling and most importantly limiting finish variability; critical when replacing traditional bright chromium finishes with low gloss dark coatings.

MacDermid present the latest innovations Questions during technical sessions

The technical sessions were well received

In summary, there were many interesting topics for the delegates to consider from the two day seminar. In particular the implications of REACh and the ability to process plastic without the use of hexavalent-chromium stood out. Comments included: “I was impressed with the technical content and open nature of the discussions” “The Plating on Plastics is a long and variable supply chain. This seminar allowed me to understand the impact of the current situation and network with my industry colleagues. It was nice to be able to offer and clarify the OEM perspective”

“Clearly we need to look further at chromium-free etching and understand how we can install into our plating line”

For further information about this event please contact Mr. Michael Barz of MacDermid GmbH, mbarz@macdermid.com , Germany Sales Director. For more images taken during the conference http://bit.ly/1kQzaG6 www.macdermid/industrial.com

The venue was a perfect place for an automotive seminar

Delegates from the German Automotive and Decorative supply chain at the MacDermid conference