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Q&As since 1989


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Off-The-Shelf Cadmium Plating System

I am looking for an off-the-shelf non cyanide cad plating system. The system needs to handle small to medium size parts with low to moderate throughput. Some type of package system would be best. If anyone has a system of this type or knows where I can get information on a system like this, I would appreciate your response.

Scott C [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
USMC- Alabama
1998

If you asked me, I might be able to find some used equipment and modify it for your use. If you asked some engineers, they would say that they could design and build a new one for less than the total cost and headache of repairing old, outdated "junk", and then you would have something that is cutting edge.

So it depends on if you want to spend your money all at once, or over the course of several years, and there are banks that will finance the new lines, so even this problem is not inevitable.

As far as a package goes, are the parts going to be plated in a barrel or on a rack?, What do you call small to medium size? And low to moderate throughput? Are you sure you need non cyanide Cd? What MIL spec are you trying to meet? No matter what anyone tells you, you better show them the parts and the application.

  
Tom Pullizzi
Falls Township, Pennsylvania
1997

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Sir,

To the best of my knowledge, the only non cyanide cadmium that is commercially available at this time is from Aldoa. It uses pyridine as a brightener so it stinks like dead fish. Pyridine may be severely limited in your effluent, so check with your sewer people before you start. If you are into home brew, you might want to try a pilot plant size using fluoboric acid cad plating from generic recipes available in the literature. This may also mess up your waste treatment system, so do some homework there first.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
1997

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1998

Plating lines are invariably customized affairs rather than off-the-shelf systems. Probably the closest you will come to a packaged system would be a lab-scale, table-top line, such as offered by Technic, Providence, Rhode Island.

However, it is very important for you to understand that plating lines, even lab scale lines, are not buy-and-forget. You will have effluent that cannot be discharged, but must be treated, or hauled away. You also will almost surely be involved in air sampling and medical monitoring if doing cadmium plating.

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