EU proposes chrome plating ban
Chrome plating as we know it will disappear forever if new European Union regulations come into operation, classic experts have warned.
The problem centres around the use of hexavalent chromium which is on the list of substances banned under EU regulation 1907/2006. It is acknowledged by the EU as a carcinogen, and chronic exposure has been linked with lung cancer – affecting those who work in the plating industry.
However, chrome plating experts have spoken to CCFS about their concerns over switching to the proposed substitute trivalent chromium.
The problem with this substitute is that the peculiar blue brightness associated with traditional chrome has proved difficult to reproduce, and trivalent does not self-repair like hexavalent, so if the surface is scratched the part will corrode.
Alan Olner, owner of Coventry-based Marque Restore, said: “If something isn’t done about this we are in trouble. As it stands, car owners may have to consider getting their chrome re-done within the next two or three years.”
He points out that companies that use the hexavalent chrome for hard chrome plating on, for example, hydraulic rams have already been granted dispensation and can continue to use it, as the trivalent version is entirely unsuitable for their needs.
Ian Ovington of Northampton and Midland Plating Company was another of the chrome plating experts who is firmly opposed to using trivalent, and bluntly described the substitute as “a load of rubbish” unsuitable for classics.
Unless an exclusion is sought and granted, hexavalent chromium will disappear as a decorative finish by 2019 at the latest, and follows on from a ban on it being used in car production across the EU since 2007.