Control the composition of your baths to ensure the performance of your surface treatments
Mastering a surface treatment bath is essential to ensure the quality, reproducibility, and durability of coatings applied to industrial parts.
During use, a bath naturally evolves: consumption of active species, accumulation of impurities, contamination, pH variation, or chemical imbalance. These phenomena can lead to deposition defects, a loss of anticorrosion properties, poor adhesion, or even production nonconformities.
The FILAB laboratory supports manufacturers with chemical analysis and expertise in surface treatment baths to ensure process control and identify the causes of drift.
Why have a surface treatment bath analyzed?
Regular analysis of the baths helps secure your manufacturing process and anticipate malfunctions before they affect part quality.
Our analyses make it possible to:
- monitor the chemical composition of the baths;
- check the concentration of active species;
- detect metallic, mineral, or organic contamination;
- monitor bath aging;
- compare several treatment baths;
- identify the source of a process drift;
- optimize maintenance operations;
- extend bath service life;
- reduce scrap and production costs.
Our bath analysis and expertise services
Physicochemical bath testing
The FILAB laboratory carries out the control of the key parameters essential to the proper operation of your treatment baths:
- measurement of metallic elements by ICP-OES or ICP-MS;
- measurement of anions and cations by ion chromatography;
- titrimetry;
- pH measurement;
- conductivity measurement;
- density measurement;
- measurement of acids, bases, and salts;
- control of additive concentrations;
- search for impurities and contaminants.
These analyses make it possible to verify the bath’s compliance with your specifications and to monitor its evolution over time.
Treatment bath expertise
Au-delà du contrôle analytique, les experts du laboratoire FILAB vous accompagnent dans l'interprétation des résultats afin d'identifier les causes d'une dérive de procédé.
Nous intervenons notamment pour :
- le diagnostic de non-atteinte des performances du traitement ;
- la comparaison de plusieurs bains de traitement ;
- la caractérisation d'une pollution de bain ;
- le contrôle de l'homogénéité des traitements ;
- l'accompagnement dans le choix d'un traitement de surface adapté à votre application ;
- l'analyse de pièces présentant des défauts liés au procédé.
Notre approche permet de corréler les résultats analytiques avec les performances observées sur les pièces traitées.
Examples of surface treatment bath analysis applications
Following a drop in process performance, the FILAB laboratory carries out a complete physicochemical characterization of the bath by ICP-OES, ion chromatography, and titrimetry. The analysis highlight a surfactant concentration outside specifications, enabling the client to implement the appropriate corrective actions.
Appearance defects are showing up on parts in production. The analysis reveal the presence of metallic contaminants responsible for the deterioration of coating quality and make it possible to identify the source of the contamination.
Why choose the FILAB laboratory for surface treatment bath analysis?
The FILAB laboratory provides you with:
- recognized expertise in the chemical characterization of industrial baths;
- state-of-the-art analytical equipment allowing multiple analysis techniques to be combined;
- support ranging from analysis to expertise and result interpretation;
- SAFRAN qualification, a guarantee of mastery of the requirements of the aerospace and defense sectors.
Our goal is to provide you with reliable, actionable results to improve control of your surface treatment processes.
Our other surface treatment services
For a complete approach to your processes, the FILAB laboratory also offers:
corrosion testing (salt spray according to ISO 9227, electrochemical testing)
coating thickness testing
surface chemical analysis (XPS, ToF-SIMS)
study of topography and roughness by AFM
adhesion and cross-cut testing of coatings
surface and coating characterization
specific surface area measurement by BET
failure analysis of coatings (corrosion, cracks, adhesion defects, color change, contamination)
Our FAQ
To get a quote, you can contact our teams via our contact form, by phone, or by email.
All you need to do is send us your requirements (material type, desired analysis, any applicable standard, urgency, number of samples, etc.). We will then send you a personalized technical and pricing proposal within 24-48 hours.
Lead times vary depending on the nature of the analysis and the complexity of the expert assessment project.
However, FILAB is committed to providing fast turnaround times tailored to your constraints and industrial urgencies.
Analyzing a surface treatment bath makes it possible to verify its chemical composition and ensure that it meets process requirements. It helps prevent drift, limit non-conformities, extend bath life, and guarantee the quality of the coatings obtained.
It is recommended to monitor a bath:
- when it is put into service;
- as part of regular production monitoring;
- after a formulation adjustment;
- in the event of a defect on treated parts;
- before process qualification or a quality audit.
Regular monitoring makes it possible to anticipate drift before it affects production.
