Possible replacements for cadmium in aviation and problem of hydrogen embrittlement determination

The study is focused on evaluating hydrogen charging of materials in plating baths approved for aviation and in weak acid plating baths. For the evaluation, ASTM F519, ASTM F326 and a newly patented method of measuring device PCN1 - Pulsator cyclic loading were used. ASTM F519 is time consuming and the results are difficult to compare. ASTM F326 proved to be unsuitable for testing above plating baths because of strong hydrogen embrittlement of probes and thus their destruction. Conversely, the PCN1 method was fast and reproducible. Results showed that the baths approved for aviation caused stronger hydrogen embrittlement than weakly acidic zinc baths.