SUSTAINABILITY
A sustainable alternative to CrVI: Manifest of the Alliance of PVD Providers APP - Alliance of PVD Providers’ official notice
T
he Alliance of PVD Providers (the
process on the pending authorisations
APP) lead and managed by Fipra
The APP calls on the EU institutions to replace a hazardous chemical substance inclused in the REACH Regulation, the hexavalent chromium (CrVI), with the sustainable alternative of PVD, the physical vapor deposition technology. ”
International Ltd. includes IHI Hauzer
Techno Coating B.V., Ionbond Netherlands, B.V., Kolzer SRL, Oerlikon Balzers Coating Germany GmbH and Vergason Technology, Inc. The APP calls on the EU institutions to replace a hazardous chemical substance inclused in the REACH Regulation, the
of the CrVI applications, included the Gerhardi, Lanxess and Hapoc applications, by December 2018. - Reduce authorisation for Gerhardi application to maximum 7 years. This would be in line with the opinions of some ECHA - European Chemicals Agency’s members.
hexavalent chromium (CrVI), with the vapor deposition technology.
On the basis of the above considerations, the
© Kolzer
sustainable alternative of PVD, the physical
APP has written the Manifest intitled
CrVI is a carcinogenic substance: in the
“A sustainable alternative to CrVI”4, which
European market it has been banned since
has the aim to show that the current draft
2011. However, despite this and despite
decisions approving the CrVI‘s continued
the existence of sustainable alternative
use are not based on the latest available
technologies, it is still used on an industrial
information, but on the opinion submitted to
scale without providing a precise date for
the European Commission by the European
its final replacement. Indeed, the European
Chemicals Agency in 2005-2006 (RAC and
Commission is planning to extend various pending CrVI authorisations for a very long
SEAC). During this period the PVD technology was still in rapid development and has been
1
time (12 years). The Committee for Socio-economic Analysis (SEAC) and the Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) within
greatly developed since then. Figure 1: The PVD technologies provide the same quality of the CrVI, they are cost-effective and available to meet the market demand and they were approved by the automotive industry.
ECHA - European Chemicals Agency have
other ones: • Lanxess: 4-year authorisation for functional plating with decorative character1, whilst maintaining a 7-year authorisation for other
2 Opinion of RAC and SEAC (16 September 2016) on an Application for Authorisation for Chromium trioxide use: Functional chrome plating.
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quality, they are cost-effective and available approved by the automotive industry (Fig. 1).
• Gerhardi: 12-year authorisation3 although
The replacement with more environmentally
there were 2 minority positions in RAC and
friendly products must be the main aim of
SEAC in favour of a shorter review period;
REACH.
• Hapoc: RAC and SEAC have not yet issued a recommendation on this application.
The current status quo means the maintenance of a situation that represents a defeat for the
applications2;
1 Opinion of RAC and SEAC (16 September 2016) on an Application for Authorisation for Chromium trioxide use: Functional chrome plating with decorative character.
the PVD technologies, that provide the same to meet the market demand and they were
recommended the European Commission to grant the following authorisations, among
Nowadays the CrVI can be easily replaced with
The APP requests the EU institutions to:
society, since it is a missed opportunity for a
- Clarify and speed-up the decision-making
more sustainable Europe.
3 Opinion of RAC and SEAC (13 March 2017) on an Application for Authorisation for Chromium trioxide, use: Plating on Plastics for Automotive Applications (PoPAA). ECHA/RAC/SEAC: AFA-O0000006558-63-02/F.
4 The manifest can be downloaded from the website: https://fipra.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Nonconfidential-APP-manifest-PVD-a-sustainable-alternative-toCrVI-14092018-final61.pdf
N. 54 - NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 - international PAINT&COATING magazine