Subject: The Laboratory / Pilot Plant
“Innovative – not superficial”, of course this motto also applies for the laboratory at Gerhard Heiche GmbH. Because our customers’ have very high requirements for quality, the control and management of the process baths take centre stage more and more. The control of the chrome (VI)-free process baths poses a big challenge to the analytics. During the past few years, the laboratory has been expanded step-by-step. In addition to automatic titrators, an atomic absorption spectrometer and an ion chromatograph have been added. In the first quarter of 2008 a HPLC was also added. With this we have state-of-the-art analytics.
In addition to the bath analytics, the customers’ requirements regarding coatings are also checked regularly using salt spray testing and condensation water testing in compliance with DIN. Testing the bonding ability of surfaces, the layer thickness, the micro hardness and the weight of the layer does not pose any problem at our company.
Environmental protection is an important topic in the laboratory, too. The laboratory team looks after the in-house sewage plant and sees to it that the sewage from the production is detoxified and fed into the waste water system in compliance with legal requirements. Here the monitoring is done by photometric measurement.
In the in-house pilot plant it is possible to test new chemicals and processes in greater amounts. Customers are able to have their original parts sampled with new coating processes.
If new processes stand the test, they are integrated into the production line after first samplings. Like this for example all chrome (VI)-free processes were first tested in the pilot plant and then integrated into the production.
