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Real Solutions to Real Problems

One of the benefits of being in business for so long is that chances are we have seen your problem or one very similar before. When our team of technical experts come on the scene, they rely a long list of experiences and skills developed over 6 generations. This combined with innovative thinking and a lean perspective will help to optimize your process. Check out some of our case studies, or maybe become one of them. Your success is our success.

Brighten Brass with Aquaease 2289

As a leader in industrial and oil heating nozzles, this company provides significant reductions in combustion pollutants for cleaner air and contribute to the reduction of carbon and soot helping to retain set up efficiencies and extend maintenance cycles.

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In-Line Paint Stripping with Aquastrip MPS

Integrating the stripping process into the powder coating line has reduced rejection rates, provided for a more consistent, uniform and reliable coating on the faucets and fixtures.

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Recycle or Reuse? A Money Savings Comparison with Aquastrip ACB

By adding Aquastrip ACB to their process, companies can reuse their masking plugs allowing them to save money, improve profitability and satisfy the need for environmental and most importantly economic sustainability.

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Clean Aluminum Extrusions with Emerald Acid Clean #1

Emerald Acid Clean #1 - a citric acid-based soak, ultrasonic, spray cleaner that may be used for the removal of a variety of soils and oxides - outperformed the competitor’s chemistry and it was easier to control for an international company that manufactures deep drawn aluminum extrusions used in the aerospace, automotive and military market.

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Improving Aluminum Forging Throughput with Lusterlume

Lusterlume ALB 4 removes residual oxidation left on aluminum forgings after annealing process. Improve process speed and cleanliness while seeing improvements to your bottom line.

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Metal Treatment and Hex Chrome Reduction with AquaPure

A well known military metal finishing operation in Pennsylvania was having trouble treating hexavalent chromate rinses that also had cadmium in them. Our team of experts set the system up to treat both the hex chrome and cadmium bearing rinses in the same tank.

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Reducing Hexavalent Chrome in Wastewater

Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) is not easily treated, unless you really understand the chemistry. Fortunately, Robin Deal, Hubbard-Hall Wastewater Specialist, both understood the chemistry and was familiar with the manufacturing processes Limco was using. Robin began her process with a full treatability study that demonstrated to Limco management that their problems were solvable.

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The Perfect Mix: Exceeding Guidelines and Reducing Costs in Wastewater Treatment

An aluminum can manufacturing material had fallen out of compliance with its local and state wastewater treatment jurisdictions on levels of fluoride being discharged from the plant. The plant’s influent fluoride level was 60 ppm, and its discharge limit was 15 ppm.

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Solving Wastewater Problems Tankside and Side-by-Side

Did you keep a journal in Science class of the steps you took to solve a problem? Believe it or not, our AquaPure technicians still keep those journals while completing a Process Audit. Step-by-step our technicians are with you to find the best process to optimize your system; ultimately providing improvement recommendations and the required training for your operators. This Process Journal is an example of how we work with you tankside until we get the "thumbs up."

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Delivering a Dose of Good Service to Get a Flocculant Problem Cleared Up

Do you document the process and progress of your projects? Our wastewater specialists use Process Journals to document their thinking, ideas, and development of the project. Find out what happened when a manufacturer had a flocculant problem and the steps that were taken to clear it up.

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Keys to Electropolish Success

Control Electropolishing in Brooklyn, New York, has been in business for over 60 years, and one thing has remained fairly consistent in that time: a commitment to excellence in how they electropolish parts, and the chemical solutions that they use to get there. 80% of the work they perform is for the medical industry. The recent Coronavirus pandemic has started talks of more medical and surgical equipment being reshored back to the U.S., which might increase the workload for shops who perform electropolishing here.

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Tank side assistance reduced zinc and improves wastewater process

Established in 1981, our client manufactures 60,000 - 70,000 pounds of screws daily that are carried in Lowe’s and Home Depots nationwide. Not surprisingly, the philosophy of this market leader is one of continuous improvement. However, sometimes changes for the better also have consequences. When the company went to a new acid- pickle bath pre-treat system on its paint line, the result downstream was far too much zinc in its wastewater effluent.

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More effective, less costly paint stripping: Aquastrip ACB

For a 100-year-old eyelet manufacturer, issues with their paint stripping process were beginning to slow down and delay production. Their current chemistry provider was falling short on service and value. Additionally, the chemistry they provided created wastewater issues due to unacceptably high level of benzyl alcohol. To make matters worse, this same chemistry had a strong odor that made working with it all the more unpleasant.

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Putting The Brakes on Flash Rust

A leading remanufacturer of automotive brake calipers was having problems with flash rust appearing on their finished goods. What was even worse was the fact that the issue was not revealing itself until after the remanufactured parts were already shipped to retail stores and customers were pulling boxes off of store shelves and seeing the surface rust, forcing the chain stores to return the products to the distributor.

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Helping an Anodizing Facility Meet Permit Limits

An anodizing facility was struggling to meet a pretreatment permit discharge limit of 10mg/L for Total Phosphorus. If the facility could not retain pretreatment permit limits, they would be at risk for fines and potentially having their permit revoked. Influent water showed an incoming Total Phosphorus averaging 700mg/L. Phosphorus came from the anodizing process rinse waters. pH adjustments, chemical dosing changes, and system changes did not remove enough phosphorus to get below the facility’s discharge limits.

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Getting Buff: Removing Polishing Compounds Before Electroplating

When it comes to electroplating metals such as brass, copper, and anything in between, American Plating in Cranston, Rhode Island, knows that having a clean surface helps before running parts through their various plating lines. American Plating consulted with Hubbard-Hall looking for the best way to ensure all received parts could be properly and efficiently cleaned before being plated.

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Extending the Process Life of Membrane Systems

In 2002, Mass Design invested in a microfiltration membrane wastewater treatment system. Committed to improving the sustainability of wastewater discharge, they were also keen to ensure a long-term return on their investment. The Hubbard-Hall team took data and analysis back to their lab and began assessing the situation, all the way from asking if minor tweaks were needed to asking if a new wastewater treatment was needed.

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Less Cleaning Chemistry Translates to Significant Cost Savings

An automotive parts manufacturer was looking to shave operating costs to help bottom-line margins. The company was spending over $100,000 per year on cleaning chemicals while also struggling with persistent quality issues rate stemming from its plating operation. It was believed this was due to poor cleaning. With the implementation of the Aquaease Infinity process, the company saw their plating operation’s reject rate drop. In addition, cleaner bath life extended from a couple of weeks to ‘haven’t been dumped in 18 months’. Chemistry usage and costs – including the cost of leasing equipment – dropped from $100,000 to $65,000.

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Coater Sees +40% Production Gain Using -50% Less Chemistry

Mikon Products, a family-owned liquid and powder paint business in Oxford, Connecticut, needed a phosphate cleaner for use on various substrates with a multitude of unknown contaminates. They also needed to address flash rusting issues before oven drying and wanted to add an in-process corrosion preventative that would not impact paint adhesion.

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Removing chrome, cutting costs in wastewater treatment nets a hole-in-one

Chromium has many industrial and decorative uses, but in wastewater, it can be a big problem. Failing to meet wastewater requirements can lead to steep fines and facility shutdowns. For Southern Metal Processing (SMP), a recent permit change meant that they were working 24/7 and paying for daily off-site testing in a desperate effort to meet new discharge limits.

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Proper Training Leads to More Reliable Process

Hubbard-Hall was recently asked to assist a metal finisher who was having trouble with their vacuum degreasing cleaning system. About five years earlier, they had switched from n-propyl bromide (nPB) to perchloroethylene (perc).

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Solving White Haze on Stainless Steel

Hubbard-Hall helped a manufacturer remove problematic haze from their product by giving the manufacturer a full assessments of their cleaning system and then sending effected parts to the lab for examination. The diagnosis revealed that the manufacturer was having a solvent related issue, which Hubbard-Hall solved in less than 2 weeks by recommending a new aqueous cleaning process.

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Three-Metal Blackening Challenge Solved

A manufacturer needed to blacken a part made from three welded substrates. Hubbard-Hall recommended Aquaease PL solve a white haze effect. Hubbard-Hall then tested blackening the part with Cobalt 6, Inconel, and 17-4 Stainless Steel. In the end, the manufacturer used Black Magic RT SS4 to provide a deep and consistent black finish.

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Ecoater Gets 200% More Use of Paint Stripper at 40% Savings

By analyzing and adapting their paint stripping process to include Aquastrip, this electrocoater was able to save time and money.

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Electropolishers's Wastewater System Shines Again

As a new owner of a company, you never want to find out that the wastewater system is not operating within its design parameters. That’s especially true when you have plans to expand operations by adding larger process tanks and new processes to offer customers, and that is exactly where the new owner of one electropolishing company found themselves.

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Looking Upstream to Cut Heavy Metals in Wastewater

A manufacturer of stainless steel and nickel alloy bar and wire was registering extremely high amounts of nickel, zinc, and other metals in their wastewater. They needed to pretreat and co-mingle into their main discharge. When they could not find solutions from their existing supplier, the manufacturer called on Hubbard-Hall to come in and assess the situation to find solutions so they could meet effluent guidelines for their wastewater system

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Stripping Paint from Masking Proves Profitable for Automotive Coater

Roy Metal Finishing (RMF) coats millions of parts each year at its three facilities in South Carolina, and it’s attention to detail has made it one of the top finishing operations in North America, and certainly one of the largest. Specializing in rack and barrel zinc plating, zinc-alloy coatings, electrocoat and powder coating, for one particular application — powder coating brake calipers and brake fluid systems— it required an extensive amount of masking downholes and other areas that were not only labor intensive, but also used a significant amount of caps and plugs in the masking process. The goal was to reduce costs where they could.

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If the shoe fits, remove the adhesives and glue from the stamping molds.

A Taiwanese-based shoe manufacturer was having issues with its stamping molds for sneakers picking up adhesives and glues that were left on the material during the manufacturing process The company needed to find a way to quickly remove the adhesives and glues from the mold without further disrupting the manufacturing process.

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Like a Champ: How Hubbard-Hall's On-Site Quality Program Reduces Costs and Downtime

A manufacturer was faced with dumping an expensive 600-gallon vapor degreasing bath and suffering significant downtown because of low pH levels. Hubbard-Hall’s CHAMP program caught the issue before parts were damaged and before the tank would have a need to be dumped. Weekly checks by the Hubbard-Hall Analytical Service Technician alerted the manufacturer to a mechanical issue with the degreasing machine, which turned out to be a clogged drain. Once the drain was quickly repaired, the vapor degreasing machine was working smoothly again, and the Hubbard-Hall Analytical Service Technician continued its weekly checks of levels to ensure it was working properly

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Opening the Door to Better Pretreatment, Less Cost, and Improved Performance

A commercial steel door frame manufacturing company ran into trouble with their iron phosphate pretreatment system when the local wastewater treatment facility began noticing higher metal levels in its effluent. The local treatment district began issuing fines to the company, which accumulated as the manufacturer sought a way to get their system back into compliance and avoid having more stringent regulatory measures taken against them. Hubbard-Hall representatives promptly assessed the manufacturing process change leading to high metal discharge levels and recommended two changes to solve the issues.

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White Glove Distribution Services When You Can’t Afford to Be Line Down.

In the world of semiconductor manufacturing, uptime is crucial. Hubbard-Hall’s Inventory Management Service ensures materials are always available to prevent production line downtime. One evening, Hubbard-Hall’s Director of Supply Chain received an after-hours call from a customer in New England experiencing material defects.

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Rejuvenating a Trickling Filter System to Remove Fats, Oils, and Grease

A manufacturer’s trickling filter had not been working properly for quite some time when they decided to call in Hubbard-Hall to review the pretreatment part of the system and try to get it to work properly so that it could treat the fat, oil, and grease in its wastewater treatment system.

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A Bug in the System: Using Bacteria to Treat Industrial Wastewater

A metal extrusion company found itself having issues with its Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) in its wastewater treatment operation due to surfactants disrupting the bacteria. Specifically, the company was treating rinse water that contained surfactants with biologics and related chemistries and, over a period of time, found their treatment process was having a less-than-desired effect. They approached Hubbard-Hall with a need for a better culture that is more surfactant-resistant than what they had been using.

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Process Matters in Solving Critical Parts Cleaning Issues

Hubbard-Hall’s cleaning team resolved a $1 million inventory issue for a defense manufacturer by addressing process issues, not just cleaning chemistry. Despite not winning the product sale, their expertise led to the acceptance of 400 tubes, demonstrating a commitment to customer satisfaction and building confidence for future collaboration.

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Optimizing Barrel Plating: How Hubbard-Hall's Expertise Enhances Performance and Reduces Cost

Many companies engage in rack and barrel plating seek ways to boost production, enhance performance, and reduce operational costs. However, employees often lack the in-house expertise or time to conduct thorough process audits and analyze results. This leads to common issues in barrel plating, such as chipping on parts within the barrel chloride zinc lines and slower throughput than expected.

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Delivering Far More Than Just Chemicals

Hubbard-Hall's Solvent Sales Specialists excel in maintaining customer relationships and delivering tailored solutions, as demonstrated by their long-term partnership with a component manufacturer. When the manufacturer, now part of a multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate, needed a replacement for their banned chlorinated solvent TCE, Hubbard-Hall proposed DOWCLENE™ 1601, a modified alcohol solvent by Safechem.

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Removing Rust Provides Usable Inventory for Manufacturer of Mower Blades

In the agriculture industry, maintaining the quality of parts during storage is crucial to prevent issues like rust and discoloration, especially when dealing with high humidity and acidic environments. A manufacturer facing this challenge found their traditional hydrochloric acid-based de-rusting process not only slowed down production but also exacerbated rust issues due to the fuming acid. Seeking a more efficient and safer solution, they partnered with Hubbard-Hall to test the Emerald Deruster PH 7, a non-acidic, environmentally friendly alternative.

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Better, Safer, and Faster: Improving Copper Cleaning and Wastewater Treatment

When IMC, a global leader in anode manufacturing, sought to enhance its cleaning processes and optimize wastewater treatment, they turned to Hubbard-Hall for expert assistance. IMC’s Vice President, Steve Leonetti, needed a solution that would streamline operations in their state-of-the-art facility while also reducing labor intensity and improving process efficiency. Working closely with IMC, Hubbard-Hall delivered a tailored solution that improved productivity and environmental outcomes.

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