Fengfan OX-301 is a low-foam carrier for potassium chloride, or acid, zinc plating. It arrives as a light yellow to yellow viscous liquid that dissolves fully in water, with a solid content above 70% — one of the more concentrated carriers among our acid zinc plating chemicals, which keeps the drum-to-tank arithmetic sensible on a busy line.
In the tank it has one main job: it carries. Acid zinc brightness comes from a package of organic brighteners and softeners, and those organics only work if they stay evenly dispersed through a plating solution that is heavy with potassium chloride. The carrier holds them in suspension and keeps feeding them to the cathode surface, so what happens at the part stays consistent from the first load of a shift to the last.
Salt resistance is usually the first thing a plating engineer tests. This carrier keeps its dispersing and emulsifying action in potassium chloride electrolytes of different concentrations, so a freshly made-up tank and a bath that has been running and building up for weeks behave in much the same way.
The payoff is what most shops judge a carrier on: brightness across a wide range, including the middle and low current density areas that go dull first on complex work. Levelling comes with it, and so does deep plating into recesses. Where a job needs more reach still, the carrier can be run alongside OX-108 to strengthen that deep plating effect.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Chemical name | Low-foam zinc plating carrier |
| Product type | Chemical intermediate for potassium chloride (acid) zinc plating |
| Appearance at 25 °C | Light yellow to yellow viscous liquid |
| Solid content | > 70% |
| pH value (1% water solution) | 4.0–7.0 |
| Specific gravity at 25 °C | > 1.1 |
| Odour | Slight |
| Solubility | Water-soluble |
| Function in the bath | Softener carrier and dispersing component for the brightener package |
A carrier is a surface active agent by nature. Its molecules gather at the boundary between the plating solution and the part, and that is where they decide how much of the brightener package reaches the surface and how evenly it is spread.
In acid zinc the difficulty is the electrolyte itself. A potassium chloride bath carries a heavy load of chloride salts, and organic additives that disperse easily in plain water can separate or stop working as the salt content rises. This carrier was built around that constraint: it holds its dispersing and emulsifying action in potassium chloride solutions of different concentrations, so the same addition behaves the same way in a new tank and in a seasoned one.
The wide brightness range is the practical benefit. Current density varies across any load — high at the edges and contact points, low in the middle of a panel and inside recesses — and a carrier with a narrow window leaves part of that load dull. With a wider range, the middle and low current density areas build a sound, bright deposit instead of a grey one, and that band is usually what decides whether a load passes inspection.
Levelling and deep plating come from the same behaviour. Because the additive film is distributed evenly, the deposit fills micro-profile and reaches into recessed geometry rather than building only where the current is strongest. Shops running parts with deep draws, blind holes or shielded faces notice this first, and it is also why the carrier pairs so well with OX-108 when a job needs extra reach.
It is a team player as well. The carrier is designed to be used with other additives, so it can sit inside an existing brightener and softener combination rather than forcing a rebuild of the whole package. For a plating shop that means one variable changed at a time; for a formulator it means a carrier that can be dropped into a system already in development.
During the process of electroplating, gas leaves the cathode continuously, and every pump, filter return and movement of work stirs the bath on top of that. Foam is the visible result, and it costs more than it looks: a foam layer takes up tank volume, climbs the walls, dries on parts and equipment, and hides the work surface from the operator who is trying to see what the deposit is doing.
Because this carrier is a low-foam surface active agent, it does its dispersing job without building a head of foam. That matters most on lines that run hard — dense loads, strong solution movement, high current density — where a foaming carrier forces the operator to back off the very conditions the job needs.
Low foam is not the same as no foam, and it is worth being precise about that. Foam belongs to the whole bath rather than to one component: the brightener, any wetting agent, the level of agitation and the amount of work in the tank all feed into it. If foam appears after a change, look at the carrier-to-brightener balance before reaching for a defoamer, which only hides the symptom.
Confirm the behaviour on your own bath. Send us the bath type, the temperature and the way the tank is agitated, and we will tell you what to expect from the carrier at the level you plan to run.
Choosing the right match is where most sourcing decisions stall. As a trading supplier, we keep one point of contact from first enquiry to after-sales: tell us what you are making and the conditions you work under, and we shortlist the closest matches from our supplier network, compare specifications and arrange samples before you commit to a bulk order. If something does not behave as expected, we work with the supplying partner on the cause and a practical fix, and stay with the case until it is settled. Email, WeChat or WhatsApp enquiries get a reply within 24 hours.
Yes. It is built for potassium chloride, or acid, zinc electrolytes, and that is where its salt resistance and dispersing behaviour are tuned. It sits in our acid zinc plating chemicals range alongside the brighteners and wetting agents used in the same bath. Alkaline zinc and sulfate zinc use different carrier chemistry, so if you run those lines as well, tell us the bath type and we will point you to a product that can actually work there.
A brightener controls how the zinc grains grow and how reflective the finished deposit is. A carrier is the delivery system: it is a surface active agent that keeps the brightener and softener evenly dispersed in a high-chloride bath and brings them to the part. Feed brightener into a bath with too little carrier and much of it never reaches the surface it was bought for.
Start with the three variables that move first: the carrier level inside its working band, the bath temperature at 20–35 °C, and the bath pH at 5.5–6.5. Then run a test panel and read it from the high current density edge inwards, because that is the fastest picture of what the metal plating process is doing across the load. If the dull band survives with the carrier at the top of its band and temperature and pH in window, send us the bath details and the panel result and we will work through the additive balance with you.
Yes. It is a chemical intermediate rather than a finished additive package, so it can be built into a softener system of your own design. Formulators typically use it as the carrier layer and balance it against their own brightener and wetting components. Ask us for the technical data you need for your formulation work, and tell us the bath type so the recommendation matches what you are building.
It is a low-foam carrier by design, so it disperses the package without building a foam layer of its own. Foam during the process of electroplating still comes from the whole bath — brightener, wetting agents, agitation, current density and how much work is in the tank all play a part. If foam appears after a change, check the carrier-to-brightener balance before adding a defoamer.
Let it come to room temperature and stir it before drawing an addition. Viscosity moves with temperature, so a cold drum measures differently by volume than a warm one, and that difference shows up as a dosage error. Weigh the addition rather than pouring to a mark, keep the drum closed between additions, and store it in a cool, dry place.
