What are the hazards of illegal plastic electroplating?
What are the hazards of illegal plastic electroplating?
First, air pollution: Plastic electroplating production requires a lot of chemicals such as strong acids, strong alkalis, salts and organic solvents, which will emit a lot of toxic and harmful gases during the operation. For example, hydrofluoric acid smokes in the air, and its vapor is very corrosive and toxic; a lot of chromium mist will be emitted during chromium electroplating. Chromium compounds can cause skin ulcers, anemia, nephritis and neuritis and other diseases, and have carcinogenic and gene mutation-inducing effects.
Second, water resource pollution: The main source of zinc in plastic electroplating and metal processing industrial wastewater is the drag liquid of electroplating or pickling. The pollutants are transferred to the rinse water through the metal rinsing process. The pickling process involves immersing the metal (zinc or copper) in a strong acid to remove the surface oxide, and then immersing it in a brightener containing strong chromic acid for long-face treatment. The wastewater contains a lot of hydrochloric acid and heavy metal ions such as zinc and copper, as well as organic brighteners, which are highly toxic. Some of them also contain highly toxic substances that are carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic, which are extremely harmful to humans.
Third, dust hazards: Most hardware workpieces must be polished and mechanically polished before electroplating; in addition, sandblasting is required to remove slag, molding sand, oxide scale and other impurities on the surface of castings, forgings or parts after heat treatment. A lot of dust that may contain silicon, chromium, aluminum, iron, copper and linen will be generated during these operations. Fourth, there is an explosion risk: organic solvents are often used to degrease and remove oil from workpieces in plastic electroplating production. Commonly used organic solvents include gasoline, kerosene, acetone, benzene, trichloroethylene and carbon tetrachloride. In addition, paint strippers are used to remove old coatings, and finishing (sealing) varnishes are used to seal coatings. Paint strippers contain a lot of dichloromethane and other organic solvents, and finishing (sealing) varnishes also contain a variety of organic solvents. Gasoline, kerosene, benzene and some other organic solvents have a very low flash point and are very volatile in the air. When the mixture of their vapor and air reaches the lower explosion limit, a fire and explosion accident will occur when encountering an ignition source such as a spark.