Ion exchange resins for metal processing industry

Specialty chemicals company LANXESS participated at the India Surface Finishing conference and exhibition from 11th – 13th February, 2011 as a leading manufacturer of ion exchange resins. This year, the exhibition in Goregaon in Mumbai witnessed a fundamentally new way of metal processing and surface finishing – through the use of ion exchange resins. For this application, LANXESS offers innovative solutions with its broad range of Lewatit® ion exchange resins.

Lewatit ion exchangers consist of superfine synthetic beads with a diameter of 0.3 to 1.2 millimeter. They are added in bulk to filter devices. If mixed with an aqueous suspension, they can be easily filled into the filter device or rinsed out, if desired. Some of the applications where ion exchange resins can be used effectively in the metal processing industry are – treatment of waste water, recycling of rinse water, treatment/recovery of process baths, recovery of precious metals and raw water treatment.

LANXESS has more than 70 years of experience with the production and application of ion exchange resins. The Lewatit® brand stands for innovative filtration media and, at the same time, also for innovative and highly efficient technologies, such as the fluidized bed or multistep process. The company is investing globally in new production facilities for ion exchangers and other products that are key factors for water treatment. LANXESS has set up a new state-of-the-art production facility for ion exchange resins in Jhagadia in the state of Gujarat, which is operational since December 2010. It boasts an annual capacity of 35,000 metric tons. Around 200 employees from the Ion Exchange Resins (ION) business unit manufacture products for industrial water treatment for the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries, the food sector and the power industry.

Metal processing industry includes applications that are relevant to producing goods. This could include manufacturing of vehicles, production of electronic components, tools, household appliances, machines and other commodities, production of construction elements for the construction industry among several others. This process is a key technology in automotive, electrical and electronics and consumer durables industries.

At the conference, Kedar Oke, Senior Manager Technical Marketing in the Ion Exchange Resins business unit, presented a paper on “Solutions for the Metal Finishing Industry With Lewatit® Ion Exchangers“. Ion exchange resins offer a high potential for innovation in a range of applications right from processing of chemical starting materials, synthesizing the products, isolating the generated materials from the reaction mixture to subsequent purification. They enable processes involving complex chemistry to be configured with relatively simple apparatus. Most of these processes have already been implemented on an industrial scale. In the plating industry, Lewatit® ion exchange resins are used for following applications

• Purification of Concentrated Chromic Acid bath
• Chromic Acid Recovery/ Rinse Water Recycling 
• Trivalent Chrome bath recycling
• Zinc and Nickel Electrolyte bath recycling
• Acid Purification/ retardation (Hydrochloric acid, Sulphuric acid)
• Precious metal Recovery (Gold, Silver, Platinum, Rhodium etc)

The paper laid special emphasis on two applications in the chrome plating plant - the purification of spent chromic acid bath and chromic acid rinse water recycling and chromic acid recovery (from rinse water)

About Surface Finishing Expo:
Metal Finishers’ Association of India, the largest professional association in India representing industry, research and academia in the fields of electroplating, anodizing, powder coating, electroforming, lacquering, physical and chemical vapour deposition, electroless plating, metallizing, effluent treatment  is hosting the India Surface Finishing Conference and Exhibition.