Products Finishing

JAN 2013

Products Finishing magazine is the No. 1 industrial finishing publication in the world. We keep our readers informed about the latest news and trends in plating, painting, powder coating, anodizing, electrocoating, parts cleaning, and pretreatment.

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Cutchin and his staff���which includes his heir apparent, son Hunter, who serves as vice president of purchasing and customer service���run three shifts at their plant, plating protective coatings on a variety of parts. But the auto industry in particular has been very good to Palmetto and other platers in the Atlantic Coast and Southeast region. The ���AuTobAhn��� A BMW plant opened in nearby Spartanburg, S.C., in 1994 and plans to expand again by 2014 and hire 1,200 more workers. A $1-billion Volkswagen plant opened in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 2011 with the hope of selling 1 million cars in the U.S. by 2018 and helping to create nearly 10,000 supplier jobs in the region. The U.S. Department of Commerce says that, based on the 2011 value of exports from its Spartanburg facility, BMW is the largest automotive exporter from the U.S., producing more than 1,000 vehicles each day and exporting about 70 percent of them to 130 countries. ���We call this stretch of I-85 the Autobahn,��� Cutchin says of the highway running alongside the BMW plant. ���The automotive industry has really been a good thing for all of us.��� But car parts are not what made a name for Cutchin and his Palmetto Plating plant in the industry. In fact, Palmetto is known throughout the eastern seaboard of the U.S. as a resource for plating, passivating or electropolishing very large pieces of equipment and components. Vessels, tanks, heat exchangers, pipes and other components seem to find their way to Palmetto���s Easley plant or to its sister company just up the road that specializes in black oxide finishes. Being centrally located to cities such as Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia and Charlotte has been (Continued on p. 14) a big plus. Diamond Coatings Shine On Chevrolet Cars Extra-hard, low-friction carbon coating prolongs life of piston rings, aids fuel efficiency. T he diamond-hard technology that enables razor blades to shave closer and last longer also allows the piston rings of the Ecotec 1.4L turbo engine available on the Chevrolet Sonic and Cruze to operate with less friction for better fuel efficiency and durability. This use of diamond-like carbon coating, or DLC, on a General Motors powertrain component marks a first for Chevrolet. Although the advanced synthetic surface treatment is relatively new to automobiles, it can be found on a variety of high-end products such as computer hard drives, orthopedic implants and semi-conductors. GM also is testing its use on machining tools. In general, piston rings seal an engine���s combustion chamber, support heat transfer from the pistons to the cylinder wall and regulate engine oil consumption. In the Ecotec 1.4L turbo engine, the slick, synthetically hardened steel rings do these things with minimal wear and tear. ���Thanks to diamond-like carbon coating, we can use lower tension on the Ecotec���s piston rings to reduce friction, which improves fuel economy,��� says Rich Ricchi, GM powertrain technical specialist. ���DLC also reduces oil consumption in high-mileage driving due to the favorable wear properties associated with the DLC coating.��� Depending on its intended use, DLC coatings can be chemically engineered to resist wear, control friction or avoid adhesion. In industrial applications such as those being tested at a GM powertrain facility, a specially formulated DLC coating on metal hole-drilling tools helps avoid aluminum adhesion that can ���gum up��� machinery and cause production delays. Having ���cracked the code��� of diamond-like carbon coating chemistry on Ecotec���s piston rings, GM is looking to use DLC on other powertrain components, such as rocker arms, as early as 2014. ���Through years of lab research, we���ve acquired an understanding of how to work with DLC at the atomic level,��� says Michael Lukitsch, GM senior researcher. ���It holds great promise for future applications, both in advanced manufacturing processes and improved production parts that save our customers money.��� n pfonline.com 13

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