Eight Good Reasons For Mechanical Plating

Eight Good Reasons For Mechanical Plating

Mechanical plating is an effective means of applying zinc, tin, or other ductile metals or mixtures thereof to metal substrates. It has a number of advantages over conventional plating and coating processes.

n The   most important reason for mechanical   plating is the assurance   of product reliability by the elimination of hydrogen-embrittlement. Mechanical   plating is the method preferred by many engineers for hardened fasteners and stressed components.

n   Elimination of lengthy pre-plating and post-plating baking cycles. Recently,   the ASTM issue standard   practices (ASTM B-849 and B-850) recommending baking cycles before and after  electroplating to prevent hydrogen embrittlement. For extremely hard parts, baking cycles can be quite extensive - in some cases, as long as 40 hours.

Mechanical   plating   is the   best   way   to avoid the extra expense of long baking cycles.
Customers can visually confirm that parts have been mechanically plated - something that cannot be done to confirm baking cycles. Mechanical plating has a matte finish easily distinguishable from electroplating's bright finish.

n The ability to plate parts which tangle; the glass impact media used in the process tends to prevent parts from tangling.   This mechanical   plating   process   characteristically makes this technology an ideal choice for plating hardened steel s prings.

n   The ability to plate flat parts; the media prevents flat parts from masking one another,

n   Because mechanical plating consumes all the chemistry in each process cycle, there is no build-up of contamination in the bath. This assures users   of   long-term   product and   process consistency.

n  Mechanical plating has the ability to plate sintered metal parts (powder metallurgy) without costly impregnation.

n   The ability to apply leachant - sealants after the chromate conversion coating to enhance the corrosion protection of  the process with little incremental expense. A zinc deposit of 0.0004" with a chromate   and a leachant-sealant topcoat will get over 500 hours of ASTM B-117 salt spray; at 0.001"(one mil) process will deliver over 1000 hours.

n Attractive economics for coating thicknesses above 0.0003". This is due primarily to the fact that in mechanical plating the process for thick coatings is only slightly longer than the cycle for thin coatings (unlike electroplating, where the plating time is directly proportional to the plating thickness). The cost of additional plating thickness in mechanical plating is only slightly more than the cost of the plating metal.