Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

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How many plating shops are there?

College student would like to know how many plating shops are in the United States?

Jason Barrett
- Gadsden, Alabama
2003

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Hi Jason. That's a little hard to say and a little like asking how many ships & boats there are because there are ocean liners, cruise ships & tankers, and there are rowboats, Sunfish & Omnis. But the EPA estimated in the early 1980s that there were 7,000 captive shops and 6,000 job shops and that their 1984 regs would force 20 percent closure.

If there is a well-researched update available, I would like to hear it because all I can do for you is extrapolate from my own personal sample which says that what really happened is at least 95 percent of the large captive capacity in America closed, as the corporations raced to get out of an industry which they could see would be treated as the goat by the government and media, but fewer job shops closed because they didn't have the money to do so or the opportunity to shift their business. My GUESS, and I too would like to read some data, is there are 1,000 captive shops and 5,000 job shops in America today, but the actual plating capacity in America is probably down by well over 75% since those early eighties. Pray for peace because there is no Arsenal of Democracy anymore; it was replaced by the People's Arsenal.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003