Technology meets sustainability – ENOVA RI from COVENTYA, electroless nickel technology that proves less is more

Providing sustainable, eco-friendly solutions for the surface finishing industry is COVENTYA’s mission today and in the future. This mission can be seen in all our product lines, also in the Functional coatings. Some people joke that ever more tightened restrictions and regulations for the use of chemicals will ultimately force the industry to treat parts in pure spring water… While COVENTYA is still a specialty chemical company, developing and producing chemicals, we can say that we are “half way there” at least in our Electroless Nickel technology: ENOVA RI is an innovative series of Electroless Nickel processes using 3 g/L of Nickel in the plating bath solution compared to the conventional 6 g/L.

The letters “RI” stand for “Reduced Ion” and this indicates that there is a lot more to this technology than just diluting a conventional EN electrolyte. By adapting chelation and stabilizer concentrations and also by introducing new additive types those processes are specifically formulated to keep all the performance characteristics of conventional processes while adding many new benefits. The electrolytes were designed for an optimum of: plating rate vs. bath age, stability, brightness, corrosion resistance and layer morphology. The eco-friendly advantages of the RI technology are reduced staining, more efficient rinsing with less water consumption and less drag-out of metals that end up in the waste treatment plant. In a 2000 L plating bath there are about 50 kg less dissolved solids with an RI process. The reduction of nickel drag-out as a function of the bath concentration is more than linear because the RI baths have also a significantly reduced viscosity. Lave your parts in our “almost spring water” RI processes while obtaining high performance functional coatings!