We talked with Joe Zabielski from Ronatec about the new Paladin high-phos electroless nickel chemistry, which the company says offers outstanding corrosion protection and hardness.

Zabielski says Paladin has passed salt spray tests up to 7500 hours and has plated hardness equivalent to mid-phos baths.

“Paladin is a novel high-phosphorus, electroless nickel process developed to address two key issues when using EN as a coating,” he says. “First and foremost, it is highly corrosion resistant. We have measured salt spray performance over 4130 steel panels past 7,500 hours. That is exceptional as a standard high-phosphate is generally known to plate between 500 to 1,000 hours of salt spray resistance.”

We chatted with Dan Zinman from Miles Chemical on various topics about surface finishing.

One topic is product availability that seems to be a big concern for many finishers, as well as just-in-time delivery, removing material from their floor, or an emergency when a tank is down.

We also discussed how shops are asking for more local presence with their suppliers, such as customer service issues, account management, technical support, and customer service lab help.

We had the chance to have an extended talk with Matt Lindstedt, President of Advanced Plating Technology in Milwaukee, about how the 2009 decision to reconfigure how the Milwaukee-based plating company worked with its customers and end OEMs has changed their company.

“Those were hard years because you didn't know if what we were doing was working,” says Lindstedt, who succeeded his father, John, as president of the company. His brother, James, works alongside him as the Vice President of Engineering.