You Spoke, We Listened
TAC SORMAL 121 is a conditioner/neutralizer that can help improve dying and prevent blooming that occurs from sulfates getting trapped in blind holes and complex geometry’s. By using a conditioning/neutralizing step you can help reduce defects from dye staining and white blooms and keep your dye bath active by not dragging in the anodizing bath to the dye tanks. Nitric acid has been the best option for this process tank, that is until recently, which is when we introduced TAC SORMAL 121 and now even that has gotten better and being introduced as TAC SORMAL 244
The feedback we received from TAC SORMAL 121 has been mostly positive. This product has been being used for a long time now and has helped improve the quality control for many large shops overseas. So much so we thought that the US would love it and so far many of you have loved the idea of it. Who doesn’t want to have fewer scrap parts, have their dyes remain more active longer!? It was designed help remove the sulfates from the anodizing bath to reduce spotting that can occur when viscous sulfates adhere to the surface of the part or run out of a blind hole or complex geometry. With so many benefits it should be hard to resist, so why is every shop in the US not running this?
Cost
The first hurdle we encountered was cost. But, after a few shops investigated this they found that while Nitric is cheaper to run, a reduction in defect parts well out ways the increase in cost, no one like re-work or scrap. With re-work you have the cost of running the parts again and the labor associated with this. With scrap you have the cost of the parts plus needing to tell your customer that you either need more parts or that their order will be light. TAC SORMAL 121 lasts 6 month+ depending on drag-in and the age of your anodizing bath (an old anodizing bath will be more viscous and contain more Al III ion). You can save on a lot of rejects over the course of 6+ months.
Bath Conditions
TAC SORMAL 121 was easy to run, if you were set up for it. However it required the tank to be heated 131°F. Since this is a replacement for a Nitric bath that was not heated it often required expensive line modifications to add a heater. This is not a big issue for smaller job shops, but for many larger shops it could cost tens of thousands of dollars on top of man hours required to make those modifications. This was the biggest drawback people told us to using this product.
Something New
We have been quietly testing a new product, TAC SORMAL 244. It has a lower standard operating concentration, operates at room temperature, and it a little cheaper than TAC SORMAL 121. TAC SORMAL 244 offers the same or better performance as the 121 without as many of the drawback. By using TAC SORMAL 244 you can make you line a bit more resilient without any major line modifications.
To request a sample or more information please contact us.