Jigging equipment for metal plating

Your fabricated metal product business may use jigging equipment for metal plating.

You may use alkaline agents such as hydrogen peroxide to strip items, followed by acid stripping agents such as nitric acid.

What you must do

Check if you need a permit

Check with your environmental regulator to see if you need a permit, licence or registered exemption for your operations. For example, if you remove lead chromate paints from jigs by burning or use a furnace to remove paint residues, you may need a pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit, waste management licence or registered exemption.

If you have a permit, licence or registered exemption you must comply with its conditions. Your permit may contain conditions controlling your noise, vibration, odour, dust and smoke emissions. You can be fined or even sent to prison if you do not comply with conditions.

Contact your environmental regulator

Pollution prevention and control permits

Prevent nuisance

If your process creates levels of noise, dust, grit, fumes or smoke that could cause a nuisance or harm the health of the surrounding community, your local council can issue an abatement notice that:

• requires you to reduce the nuisance
• bans or restricts the nuisance
• requires you to carry out work or take other steps to reduce or stop the nuisance.

Anyone who is affected by the nuisance, such as your neighbours, can apply to the court in Northern Ireland or sheriff in Scotland to issue you with an abatement notice.

You can be fined if you do not comply with an abatement notice, and the local council can take steps to stop the nuisance itself and charge you for its costs.

Comply with your waste responsibilities

You must comply with your duty of care responsibilities when you manage your waste, such as spent jigging wire.

Noise, odour and other nuisances

Good practice

Reduce your noise emissions

• Secure items before you de-jig them to reduce your noise emissions.
• Use jigs inside your building and close your doors.
• Avoid using jigs early in the morning or late in the evening to reduce the likelihood of noise complaints.

Be a good operator

• Inspect your goods carefully when jigging-up to avoid plating obvious rejects.
• Use jigs without flat areas and hollows. This will reduce drag-out.
• Reduce tank contamination and sludge production by masking or 'stopping off' areas on the jig that you are not using.
• Separate jigging wire from your general waste. You can send it to a metal recycler, but you must check that they hold the appropriate licence or registered exemption, to ensure you comply with your duty of care responsibilities. If you separate and sort your waste you could reduce your waste management charges.
• Inspect your jigs regularly. Clean the jigs if you have problems with colour cross-contamination or earthing.

Be a good neighbour

• Speak to your neighbours regularly about any issues with noise or other nuisances at your site.
• If you receive any complaints about noise or other nuisances deal with them quickly.
• Record the results of investigations into complaints and anything you do to correct the problem.