Acid baths

Your acid bath cleaning service

Chemical pickling is one of the industrial pickling techniques used to restore surfaces.

By preparing your surfaces, you ensure their longevity and resistance. However, each substrate has its own specific stripping process. Get to know chemical stripping, one of the most effective techniques for preserving surfaces.

It results from the action of an acid on the metal oxide:

• for carbon steels, aluminum and its alloys: water bath with sulfuric acid (5 to 15%), hydrochloric acid (10%) and hydrofluoric acid (2 to 15%);
• for stainless steels: water with hydrochloric acid (15%), azotic acid (15%) and sulfuric acid (5%);
• for copper and copper alloys: water bath with azotic acid (5%), sulfuric acid (5%).

Pickling can be carried out cold, but with a 70° bath, the operation is considerably accelerated. The acid attacks not only the adhering oxide, but also the metal, releasing hydrogen, some of which is absorbed by the metal. To remedy this problem, the bath is supplemented by a pickling limiter which delays the action of the acid on the metal without hindering the dissolution of the oxides.

Stripping limiters are based on glue, starch, tar or organic sulfur compounds.