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The 38th William Blum Lecture, The Systems View in Automotive Finishes: Essential, but Overlooked

Metal finishing for automotive applications has a century-long history of research and development. Through it all lies a theme, which is all too often easily forgotten. That theme is the interdependency of all the components and process, from substrate to final finish layer. Each element is part of a system - a critical fact that is readily overlooked. This lecture reviews a number of works in automotive finishing R&D in which understanding of the overall system was absolutely essential to success, from classical nickel-chromium plating to work in vacuum/electroplated hybrids for plated plastics, electrogalvanized zinc and hard chromium in stamping dies. While the emphasis here is in the automotive area, the underlying philosophy must be considered in all other facets of surface engineering.

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