Waste-Disposal Studies by the
American Electroplaters' Society
C. Fred Gurnham*
Chemical Engineering Consultant
New Haven, Connecticut
The planning and ultimate design of treatment plants for industrial
wastes must, obviously, be an individual task for every plant. This may
be handled by engineers within the plant, by a consultant retained for
the job, or by a combination of their efforts, but it is hardly possible
to conceive of a "package" treatment plant which can be purchased and
installed without individual engineering studies for the particular plant.
Nevertheless, a large number of factors are common to all plants
in the same industrial group: for example, to all electroplating shops.
Many plants will be able to use similar treatment processes, even though
each unit must be engineered to different field conditions. In basic research studies, therefore, economies are achieved by joint efforts of all
related manufacturers, through the trade associations which exist in
just about every branch of industry.
This has been demonstrated by the valuable contributions of the
National Council for Stream Improvement, the Iron and Steel Institute,
and the American Leather Chemists Association, to mention just a few
such groups. About two years ago the American Electroplaters' Society
undertook to correlate and extend research on wastes from the plating
industry. It is the purpose of this paper to indicate how this research
has been organized, what has been accomplished to date, and the plans
for the future.
The American Electroplaters' Society is an organization of about
5,300 individual members, principally in the United States and Canada,
but with a considerable representation abroad. A number of years ago
this society initiated fundamental research studies on problems of the
plating industry. This work was interrupted by the war, but was resumed and modernized four years ago. A few typical projects which are
currently active are: "The Determination of Impurities in Electroplating Solutions," "The Effects of Impurities and the Purification of Electroplating Solutions," "The Nature and Effect of Porosity in Elec-
trodeposits," and "Methods for Testing Thickness of Electrodeposits."
* Chairman of the A. E. S. Research Project No. 10 and Vice-Chairman of
A. E. S. Research Directing Committee.
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