Chrome Thickness Testing Covered in New Standard
ASTM International’s metallic and inorganic coatings committee (B08) has developed a standard (B1026) on measurement of chromium and chromium alloy thickness.
According to Mark Schario, ASTM member and chief technology officer for surface finishing additive developer Columbia Chemical, this standard provides a new, valid method for measuring trivalent chrome. Schario notes that it comes as the industry moves away from decorative hexavalent chrome, due to recent environmental regulation of PFAS/PFOS compounds in this plating type. Equipment manufacturers, tier suppliers, and electroplaters are increasingly leaning into trivalent chrome plating as an alternative.
“Existing test methods using coulometric and X-ray for thickness measurement are inaccurate when evaluating chromium deposits from trivalent chromium plating solutions, due to its alloy properties,” says Schario. “This new standard has identified and uses a physical measurement, so alloying elements of the chromium deposit will not interfere when determining thickness.”
Currently, the committee is seeking test labs to help validate the standard for precision and bias.
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