Mary Carpenter is president of Carpenter Chemicals, Alexandria, VA, a distributor of the single-stage organic phosphating system. She can be reached at 703.683.1570 or mary@cc-lc.com.
Metal preparation is in many ways a dirty business. Improvements have been made in the painting phase of the operation, including a general switch to high-solids liquids and powder coatings. But pretreatment has not changed much in many years. However, starting in 2000, a different kind of pretreatment was introduced in North America. This single-stage organic phosphating system is reducing the cost and environmental impact of pretreating metal substrates.