Mitimizing hazardous waste generation in brush plating

摘要

Brush plating initially was used for touch up repairs of damaged plating or in the resizing of undersize parts. Waste generation was minimal. Brush plating moved into heavy repair and the concept of reverse machining, ie: controlled precision buildup, came to be the major use of brush plating. Solutions lost their controlled buildup capability prior to the evaporation of the carrier chemical. At this time the waste generated by the process fell into two categories. preparatory wastes and the residual plating solution. Because rinse water is used in all of the steps prep waste generally exceeded the spent solutions to be disposed of. With the designation of nickel as a hazardous waste the cost of waste disposal became a major operating cost of the brush plating process. This paper covers techniques to segregate the waste to minimize the hazardous waste generated and therefore the cost of disposal.