Sealing with Distilled Water
Can distilled water be substituted for deionized water?
Q. Can distilled water be substituted for deionized water? Our plating facility can fairly easily create a distilled water heated bath, but a deionized bath would be much more expensive. —C.A.
A. Yes, distilled water can certainly be used. In fact, distilled water is probably more reliable from a quality standpoint than deionized (DI) water. DI water can allow for wide quality variability during a given run. Distilled water should be good all the time. There is no such thing as “partially distilled” unless distilled is mixed with water of lower quality. It’s all about the amount of dissolved solids in the water. Distilled water should have none. Whether DI or distilled, the lower limit of “high quality” water is 200,000 Ohms resistance, which is the same as 5 microseimens specific conductance. When the water quality in a run reaches these numbers the quality of the water is no longer acceptable.
Related Content
-
Fixing Corrosion Between Anodized Aluminum and Steel
Anne Deacon Juhl, Ph.D., with AluConsult, says Galvanic corrosion is due to an electrical contact with a more noble metal or a nonmetallic conductor in a conductive environment.
-
Trivalent Chrome Overview
As the finishing industry begins to move away from the use of hexavalent chromium to trivalent chromium, what factors should finishers consider as they make new investments? Mark Schario, chief technology officer for Columbia Chemical offers a helpful overview of this complicated topic.
-
Preventing Anodizing Cathodes from Turning Red
While the red color may not be desirable, anodizing expert Drew Nosti says it poses no particular problem to a successful anodizing process.
