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Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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How to calculate plating or galvanizing thickness or amount of metal used

Q. Being ignorant on the subject, though dealing with a zamak parts factory, I'd like to have a formula that tells me how many grams of nickel, chrome and copper is needed to have different layers' thicknesses on a determined surface.
I'm an Italian Manager and for one year I'm working in China for a sanitary ware factory, where we mainly die cast tap's handles and levers in zamak

Massimo Soncina
Buyer - Kaiping, Gangdong Province, China
December 13, 2008

December , 2008

A. Hi, Massimo. If you know the surface area of the part and you multiply by the thickness of the layers, you have the volume of metal. Multiply the volume by the density, and you have the weight. In truth, though, getting an even thickness is highly unlikely, so things have to be estimated. Further, decorative chrome plating thicknesses are very low, whereas the amount of liquid chrome plating solution dragged out is very high, so you won't get much correlation on that one. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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