With the development of economy, people's living standards are getting higher and higher, and more and more attention is paid to health and environmental protection issues. People's concept of environmental protection has risen from the initial environmental pollution problems caused by the discharge of electroplating, washing and dyeing, chemical and other production enterprises, to the concern of whether the electroplating coating of daily products sold on the market causes harm to human health, which is a big challenge for the electroplating industry. It is also a major issue that must be solved, and it is also an opportunity for the development of electroplating enterprises. Only by realizing environmental protection in the true sense of electroplating products can the electroplating industry go better and better on the road of sustainable development.
At present, most of the daily products use nickel plating process, and the human body for a long time direct contact with nickel is easy to cause skin allergies and even blood allergies, chronic inhalation of nickel can lead to heart, brain, liver and other degeneration, the current European Union countries on the human skin contact products nickel release has been strictly controlled (<0.5mg/cm2 weekly). Nickel will bring harm to the human body, what are the nickel-containing products exposed to in daily life, and how are the use and requirements of health and environmental standards for it, as detailed in the following table：
It can be seen from the above table that nickel-containing products can be found everywhere in our daily life and affect people's health all the time. Whether it is from the perspective of health and environmental protection or improving product performance, adopting nickel-free electroplating process is the general trend. However, many electroplating factories are not clear about the concept of nickel-free electroplating and mistakenly think that nickel-free electroplating means not using nickel plating. After copper plating skip nickel plating process directly gold, silver and other surface coating, resulting in products quickly change color, quality is seriously unqualified; Some electroplating factories also try to replace nickel plating with copper-tin alloy, but it is only symbolic plating for 1 to 2 minutes, and the coating thickness is obviously not enough, resulting in substandard anti-discoloration performance of the product.genuineNickelless platingIt is to replace the nickel plating of the same thickness with the copper-tin alloy plating of more than 3 microns, so that the corrosion resistance of the coating is equivalent to or even stronger than the nickel plating layer, and the true sense of nickel-free plating is realized.
The corrosion resistance of nickel and copper-tin alloy coatings can be seen from the following salt spray test data：
Using iron and zinc alloy as substrate, the neutral salt spray test results show that the effect of copper-tin alloy plating is better than that of nickel and copper-tin alloy plating with the same thickness after the same pretreatment and copper plating.
However, whether it is truly environmentally friendly as long as the electroplating products do not contain nickel, let's take a look at the common harmful lead and thallium elements in nickel-free electroplating products:
Lead is a heavy metal harmful to human body, lead and its compounds into the body will be nervous, hematopoietic, digestive, kidney, cardiovascular and endocrine and other systems harm, if the content is too high will cause lead poisoning.
Thallium toxicity to the human body is much more than lead, similar to arsenic (arsenic), through drinking water, food, breathing and into the human body and enrichment, thallium compounds have mutagenicity, carcinogenicity and teratogenicity, resulting in esophageal cancer, liver cancer, colorectal cancer and other diseases, so that human health is greatly threatened, its strong toxicity can be said to make people shudder, smell of color change.
In our daily life in contact with jewelry, watches, glasses, bags, electronics and other daily products, the electroplating process often uses the chemical additive of white copper tin plating. The earliest white copper tin plating additive mainly uses thallium element, but because thallium is a radioactive element, it is very harmful to human body. Trace amounts of thallium can easily kill various tissue structures of the human body, resulting in a gradual decline in human function, so the later nickel-free electroplating process usually uses lead, which is less harmful to the human body. Because the ROHS environmental protection regulations in the whole product lead content control below 1000 PPM, because the lead content of parts other than electroplating can not be guaranteed, so electroplating parts usually stipulate lead content less than 100ppm, 40ppm or 20ppm, or even less than 5ppm. Because of such provisions, most raw material manufacturers in order to avoid the control of lead content in the ROHS standard, and re-use thallium-containing copper tin additives, but make electroplating products more environmentally unfriendly, more harmful to the human body.
Since thallium is much more harmful than lead, why is there no mention of thallium restrictions in the ROHS standard? The reason is obvious: just as the factory management system only stipulates that no fighting is allowed, why does it not mention "no killing and arson"? Arson is a violation of national regulations, beyond the scope of the factory management system, and the use of thallium is greatly beyond the control of ROHS environmental standards. ROHS standards limit the content of lead indicates that lead can be controlled in a certain range of content will not cause harm to the human body, but thallium as long as it exists will harm the human body, must not be used, so. ROHS regulations naturally do not mention the scope of use of thallium, and most electroplating companies and related manufacturers do not really understand this, thinking that as long as lead-free is environmentally friendly, they do not know that the carefully selected "environmentally friendly white copper tin" process contains more environmentally unfriendly, more harmful to human body thallium element.
Electroplating products containing thallium element not only harm the health of the users of electroplating products, but also a major safety hazard for the operators of electroplating plants, the most commonly used sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid three strong acids in electroplating plants, because they themselves will produce smoke, emit a harsh smell, operators will be scruple and take protective measures when using, So it can effectively reduce its harm to the body, but such as thallium harm is more colorless, odorless and little-known chemical elements are often easy to ignore, make people defenseless, cause chronic poisoning, so that various cells of the human body early aging, equivalent to shortening the life of the human body. Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of environmental protection or personal safety, we should pay attention to thallium element, seek thallium-free white copper tin nickel free technology to ensure the health and safety of operators.
Electroplating products containing thallium element not only harm the health of the users of electroplating products, but also a major safety hazard for the operators of electroplating plants, the most commonly used sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid three strong acids in electroplating plants, because they themselves will produce smoke, emit a harsh smell, operators will be scruple and take protective measures when using, So it can effectively reduce its harm to the body, but such as thallium harm is more colorless, odorless and little-known chemical elements are often easy to ignore, make people defenseless, cause chronic poisoning, so that various cells of the human body early aging, equivalent to shortening the life of the human body. Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of environmental protection or personal safety, we should pay attention to thallium element, seek thallium-free white copper tin nickel free technology to ensure the health and safety of operators.
For electroplating enterprises, various environmental standards have a double impact on them, if electroplating enterprises from the operators, production plants and people's health and safety perspective, they can produce safe and healthy quality products, can be in an invincible position in the industry competition. If electroplating enterprises do not pay attention to, do not seek to improve, muddling through, it will be eliminated in the cruel market competition!
In summary, the order of the harm intensity of the electroplating layer in daily use products to the human body is as follows：
While the majority of factories with lead-free thallium process production, complacent, there are a small number of brand companies are quietly strict requirements of their suppliers, in advance of self-improvement, first step to seize the opportunity, the concept of environmental protection to another height, to further expand the market competitive advantage! Therefore, on the other hand, strict compliance with environmental standards is not only a limitation for electroplating enterprises, but also creates new opportunities for enterprises.
Raiser Company adhering to the high requirements for the environmental protection of electroplating products, has been focusing on nickel-free environmental protection technology, launched lead-free thallium-free environmental protection of white copper tin, not only in the chemical composition to achieve lead-free thallium-free, but also can electroplate 10 micron thick bright coating, its coating corrosion resistance is very excellent, so as to achieve a true sense of environmental protection coating.
Lead-free and thallium-free environmental protection additives for white copper-tin electroplatingThe wide use of electroplating solves the problem that the coating of daily products is not environmentally friendly and causes harm to the human body, and provides a powerful help for electroplating enterprises to improve the market competitiveness!!
