Passivation Services

The specification was originally set by the U.S. Department of Defense and involved strictly nitric acid. This original spec. was QQP 35 written in the late 1960’s then in 1998 the DoD withdrew their standard in favor of ASTM 967 spec. The ASTM 967 spec. along with the aerospace industry spec of AMS 2700 which replaced AMS QQP-35 allows for citric acid, as well as the older nitric acid process. Many experts in the industry feel that citric acid is superior to nitric acid because it is more selective in its removal of “free irons”.

The service we provide also includes the ASTM 380 specification which is a cleaning step before passivation. RPA’s passivation services not only provide you with a passivated part but a very clean part as well. RPA prides itself on running clean passivation and rinse tanks by using proprietary steps to ensure that the tanks never hit the maximum level of parts per million that ASTM B600, ASTM 967 or AMS 2700 allow. This is a particular point of pride for us here at RPA.

Passivation allows for significant improvement in a part’s ability to resist rusting without adding anything to the surface or changing the size of the part, even by a very small amount. In addition, when passivation is done correctly the customer ends up with a very clean part. This is because a part of the finishing process requires aggressive cleaning and preparing the surface to be passivated.