Safety of Iridited Aluminum

Found this...

http://galladechem.com/msds/macdermid/78659.pdf

http://hazard.com/msds/f2/bch/bchft.html

Thanks for the links.

Both links are for the chemical used to treat the aluminum. That chemical is known to be toxic. The chemicals were used at a NADCAP certified plating house and have been fully washed off the final product. Waste chemicals were treated/disposed of by them in a manner consistent with local, state and federal laws.

Aluminum with a gold iridite finish has been around for years and no one seems to worry about it. The problem is that I can't find a safety statement in writing for the clean treated aluminum. This is further complicated by issues such as drilling/grinding and melting.

You probably know this but I'll add it to the posting for others. Iridite is a "conversion process" and might be thought of as a desirable form of rust. The surface of the aluminum has been chemically converted from the 5052-H32 to an aluminum-something compound that requires a knowledge of chemistry to understand. Thus, it is not a "paint on poison" process but rather a "convert the aluminum surface to something else" process.

Thank you,

Bruce

Virtually all the information available deals with handling the chemicals used during the process, not the finished parts.

The reason for that is obvious to you, there is virtually no way to ingest any harmful chemicals from handling, or even licking, a conversion coated piece of aluminum.

I've handled thousands of parts (we used Alodine 1200, _{not an endorsement}) after conversion coating in a large aerospace company and we just wore cotton gloves, to keep from getting finger fat on them, prior to painting.

The automotive industry may have handling guidelines, but a casual search didn't turnanythign.

Thanks Lyn,

Both MIL-DTL-81706B and MIL-DTL-5541F state "The conversion coatings covered by this specification are intended for use, throughout the Department of Defense, on aluminum and aluminum alloy substrates that are not anodized." I quoted this and attempted to push back a little on the requirement to add a "gloves and respirator" safety warning. Still waiting to see how it turns out.

Bruce

Hexavalent Chromium is one of the substances covered by the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) regulations in the EU. If your treatment is the same as this (I am not a chemical expert) then you would probably not be able to incorporate the parts into most types of electrical equipment sold in the EU and other parts of the world with similar regulations.

Iridite coating is achieved by chemical reaction.

Coating durability is better