Our materials offer the highest corrosion protection from the caliper through to the assembly of electronic components. Environmental legislation drives our innovation. Delivering compliant technology is critical for our global applicator base.
Surface treatments help to increase the lifespan of components such as strikers and latches. These coatings improve the quality and ultimate end-user experience. Specifying the correct protection helps to minimize warranty costs and mitigate the risk of field failure – ultimately, maintaining consistent and reliable performance.
Aluminum offers design freedom and the choice of self-color or chromium finishes. Natural aluminum finishes are preserved by a transparent conversion coating and lacquer. Chromium finishes are created using advanced adhesion techniques to ensure the plated layers last throughout the wheels natural life. esi automotive have developed the latest sustainable and compliant technology for both these finishing choices.
Most automotive body trim, grills, and mirrors are made from plastic substrates such as ABS and ABS alloys. To achieve the desired bright/satin chromium finish usually applied to these components they first need to be metalized. Today, more and more applicators are using MacDermid Enthone's ZERO chromium evolve plating on plastic and our decorative trivalent chromium plating solutions.
Decorative chromium trim is still a critical factor in exterior car styling.
Our chromium-free etch and trivalent chromium plating processes comply with the latest environmental directives.
They meet most global OEM specifications for decorative coatings and offer designers choices with dark and black chromium plating processes.
In our resource section below you can find our latest guide to meeting automotive OEM specifications for decorative and fashion finishes. Why not request a download today?
Today automotive manufacturers are specifying that chromium plated components must meet the EU REACH* requirements. Essentially this means having plastic components treated and plated in processes which are hexavalent chromium-free.
A plastic substrate component is ‘etched’ to ensure adhesion of the plated layers. Etching using our evolve chromium-free process means avoiding the use of hexavalent chromium.
The metallic chromium layer is plated using TRILYTE and Starlite trivalent chromium solutions. These technologies also have the advantage of having 90% less chromium in solution and being PFOS free.
These hexavalent chromium-free REACH compliant technologies meet automotive decorative specifications.
*Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals regulation 1907/2006, Annex XIV
Plated plastic parts must meet adhesion and corrosion resistance tests. Examples include;
Test method ASTM B533 assesses adhesion. It measures the force required to peel a metallic coating from a plastic substrate. Components etched in the evolve hexavalent chromium-free process meet these requirements.
CASS testing is used to determine a decorative coatings resistance to corrosion. ASTM B368 specifies the number of cycles without the coating showing premature corrosion. Trivalent chromium TRILYTE and Starlite plating processes meet this requirement for both exterior and interior vehicle applications.
Designers can choose from dark chromium through to ‘black’ chromium coatings. These are all based on trivalent chromium plating solutions. These choices all meet CASS* requirements. Dark coating are not available from hexavalent chromium plating solutions.
Starlite and Twilite plating processes deliver a smoky, dark chromium coating. These processes meet over 25 global automotive specifications. They can be applied to both bright or satin finishes.
A black coating using TriMac Eclipse is our latest production proven coating. TriMac Eclipse is also based on trivalent chromium technology. It delivers a black coating while retaining the metallic feel of chromium.
*Copper-Accelerated Acetic Acid-Salt
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