NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER HOSTS ANNUAL VIRTUAL FALL SEMINAR
The New England Chapter of NASF hosted a virtual seminar for the benefit of their membership and the entire non-NENASF metal finishing community. The event was held on Wednesday September 13, 2023. The event was presented free of charge to NENASF members, and at a modest fee for other interested parties, as an educational and bonding opportunity for the metal finishing community.
The Webinar was conducted by means of Zoom format and attracted about forty attendees. It was made up of three segments featuring three presenters over a two-hour period from 10:00am to 12:00 pm offering a user-friendly format for all attendees. In addition to offering vital regulatory and technical information the event also made available two Continuing Education Wastewater Treatment Operator Contact Hours needed for WWT Operator License renewal.
Ethan Ware of Williams Mullen Law Group opened the Webinar with a presentation on the upcoming EPA PSFAS Survey that will be sent out to nearly 2000 metal finishers this fall. He stressed that the demographics would not only include chrome platers but chromate conversion coaters as well. This is a very detailed Survey and asks many complex questions through eight sections over seventy-one pages. He covered the answering/data requirements both from a technical as well as a legal perspective. He very much stressed that the information gathered in this Survey will shape the future of Wastewater Discharge Permits for years to come.
This was followed by a presentation by Jeremy Riley of Omega Research giving a detailed description of how proper finishing specification required test sample preparation can make a difference in acceptable test results, while poorly prepared samples can fail causing ripple effects with customer job acceptance.
The webinar was concluded with a presentation by Tony Oriti on Zinc-Nickel and Zinc-Tin as an alternative to Cadmium Plating. Tony not only presented the latest technological advances in these two finishes as they try to replace a long-time exceptional performing and defense and aerospace specified finish, cadmium, but also gave the attendees a look at emerging technology in the form a triple alloy finish that is in the developmental stages.
Once again we want to give special thanks to Chris Capalbo for moderating, and to Dev Massimi and Ralph Capalbo as Program Speaker Facilitators for their contributions, and to the combined efforts of NASF Board Members, Committee Members, Chapter Membership and dedicated and talented members of the Metal Finishing Community as a whole for making events such as this available for the benefit of our membership.
New England Chapter of NASF is an official chapter of