First Environmentally Friendly Protective Chromium Coating for Aluminum Due on Market Soon.

The world's first protective chromium-based metal finish coating (mainly for aluminum) that is both environmentally benign and highly effective will be commercially available later this year as a result of a licensing arrangement between the US Navy's Air Warfare Center and Metalast International, Inc. of Minden, Nevada.

The coating for anodizing, called trivalent chromium protection, has the potential to replace the industry leading, but highly toxic, hexavalent chromium coating. Hexavalent chromium has been in widespread use worldwide for more than half a century, but