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Starting a small plating business
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I AM WANTING TO LEARN ABOUT THE BASIC PROCESS AND PROCEDURES OF ELECTROPLATING BECAUSE I WANT TO START A SMALL PLATING BUSINESS.
RODEL M [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]- MANILA, PHILIPPINES
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Hi, Rodel. We have many on-line articles here that may be a start for you, including our: "Introduction to Chrome Plating", and "Electroplating: How It Works", "Barrel Plating", and "Plating Shops for the New Millennium".
There are a number of good introductory texts listed on our Books Page. One that is both good and very inexpensive is the Garden State Branch AESF "Practical Electroplating" book. Another that can usually be picked inexpensively, because it's an annual, is the Metal Finishing Guidebook.
In the USA all electroplating businesses are "Categorically Regulated". This means all of the waste, even hose water, must be permitted and regulated as hazardous regardless if it's pure enough to drink -- and you are legally responsible for it forever, no matter how much you pay to dispose of it. For that reason we urge a thorough investigation before you buy any chemicals and become responsible for them forever.
To open an electroplating business, if you have not even set foot in a plating shop, is a huge leap. We encourage you to pursue your dreams -- but we suggest that, if possible, working for a little while in a plating shop first is simple common sense. Good luck!
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 Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |
November 21, 2010
I want to start small zinc plating business, so please provide the process information.
sanjay sutar- Pune, Maharashtra, India
November 21, 2010
Hi, Sanjay.
Although there are entire books covering just the process information for zinc plating, such as Geduld's Zinc Plating [link is to product info at Amazon], you probably won't need quite that level of detail. In addition to the previously mentioned resources, see if you can locate a copy of the Electroplating Engineering Handbook.
The first three technical questions to ask yourself is whether you want to offer rack plating services or barrel plating services, whether you want to go for alkaline zinc plating or acid zinc plating, and whether plain zinc plating is sufficient or you wish to offer an alloy plating like zinc-cobalt, zinc-iron, zinc-nickel, or tin-zinc. I think if you try to do a little research towards answering those 3 questions, you will soon have a pretty fair "book knowledge" of the process of zinc plating.
You will find that zinc plating processes are highly proprietary today and the process vendors will be happy to lay put a process sequence for you. It will probably include as a minimum: soak clean, electroclean, acid activate, zinc plate, and trivalent chromate conversion coating. Good luck.
Regards,
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 Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |
December 13, 2010
From experience, I decided to start a chroming company without having any experience in the field, and it ended up costing a lot more than I knew to get all the equipment. It takes a lot of practice too. I now finally have my company completely up and running and have an advantage over most companies because I have a spray on chrome machine that can chrome ANY surface! It use to be that you could only chrome conductive(metal) surfaces. With this new technology you can now have a shiny chrome finish to any surface including plastic, wood, vinyl, etc.
Trevor Stewart- Phoenix, Arizona
December 13, 2010
Hi. It is not true that real chrome plating can't be done on plastic. Just look at automobile grills. Most of them are genuine chrome electroplated plastic. But it is a complex and extremely expensive process of approximately a dozen steps not counting the rinsing required between each step: etch, activate, accelerate, electroless nickel plate, copper plate, dull nickel plate, semi-bright nickel plate, bright nickel plate, pixie dust, chrome plate.
Spray-on chrome-look paint is a much more practical starting point and avoids much of the environmental liability. Good luck with your business.
Regards,
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Ted Mooney, P.E. finishing.com Brick, New Jersey |