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Plating on polyester castings

We have recently started polyester castings. Can any one suggest me how to plate metal on this. Please give the process sequence.

Syed Farooq Quadri
mfgr. of costume jewelry- Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Dear Sir,

Polyester is plateable polymer but we have to understand the material then it will be easy to deal with.

1-we need to make etching to rough the surface of polyester few chemical reagents will etch the surface of polyester that includes the strong alkaline with alcohols and the alkalines which contains fluorides.

Both are dangers and takes along time but if you put a filler-[Ca CO3]IS THE BEST- not moor than 10%it will give A GOOD adhesion if immersed in any acid BEFORE activation {but take care you have to put acid rinse before activation to eliminate any carbonate on the surface[otherwise pd-Sn activator will spoiled because of PH increasing SO your process will be -in shaa allah -as flowing

1-degreasing
2- etching in alkaline bath as mentioned above
3- RINSE
4- acidifying in conc HCl acid to remove any traces of alkalies or carbonate
5-activation THE REST AS ABS

Good luck,

Raafat Albendary
- Cairo, Egypt

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