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For quite some time now, engineers in all walks of industry that have been specifying the use of hard chrome plating for their components have been looking for alternatives to the process. Especially nowadays with a global awareness of environmental concerns and an increased value being placed on social responsibility of manufacturing houses, engineers have started the quest for hard chrome replacement processes with greater thrust than ever before. Additionally, corporate accounting personnel dread the cost of hazardous waste stream disposal from hard chrome plating lines and look for cheaper solutions without compromising product quality and performance.

These objectives that were seemingly impossible to achieve just a few years ago are now becoming well within the reach of technologists everywhere, thanks to extensive research and development in the field of thermal spray coatings. To put in a nutshell, thermal spray coatings technology can be used effectively as a replacement for hard chrome platings.

While that may seem like a major claim, there have been many instances of actual commercial success using chrome carbide - nickel chromium alloy powder as the raw material in order to generate coatings that have effectively worked very well in the field including in stringent aerospace applications.

While plasma spray coatings can serve fairly well in this endeavour, the key to producing high quality coatings as a hard chrome replacement lies in the use of the high velocity oxy-fuel process. Because of the tremendous velocity imparted to the powder particles and the dense metallurgical micro structures made possible by this process, the resulting coatings perform extremely well in functional tests. With the absence of carcinogenic hexavalent chrome, operator health and safety concerns get to be less of a concern and this is an added benefit. There are no hazardous waste streams to be concerned about.

An added feature of using the thermal spray process is the speed of deposition is greatly enhanced. From the stand point of productivity and lowered costs, this is a bonus feature. So, there ends your quest for a hard chrome plating alternative. Now all you need is to find yourself a good coatings vendor and your problems can get solved completely!

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