Products Finishing

OCT 2017

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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PRODUCTS FINISHING — PFonline.com 17 All that mixing and measuring can often lead to imbal- ances, especially when the EN bath needs to be replenished with the A solution and a C solution, Feldstein says. This led Surface Technology—which as a plating shop itself under- stands the practical aspects of plating, not just the science—to come up with the idea for One-Plate. "Some shops in the plating industry have offered and used systems where the bath can be made up of one single compo- nent instead of two, three or more," he says. "But in none of these systems is it possible to replenish that same bath with the exact same makeup solution for ongoing maintenance of the bath over the bath's life, while providing proper bath stability and plating quality." Outstanding Brightness And that is what Feldstein says One-Plate does: provides as consistent a result as EN baths made and replenished with multiple solutions. But it wasn't the ease of use that sold Morgan on the product; it was the visual result. "I loved the one component aspect of it, but what really hooked me after we ran it was the brightness that was main- tained, and actually improved, over the life of the bath," he says. "Secondly, the rate of the bath was always consistently high. A lot of baths drop off, and the rate slows down quite a bit, but this bath seems to keep the rate pretty steady all the way through the life of the bath." From an operational standpoint, the Classic Plating team also likes that fact that it doesn't have to track the additions as much. "The biggest difference is the additions," Morgan says. "We now have the one component to track and add, which makes things so much simpler. We stopped monitoring how much nickel we have or how much hypo we have. We don't think of A, B or C any longer, and that truly is a time-saver." Even though Classic Plating is located in the heart of the automotive industry, it has shied away from that sector and has instead focused on tool and die, injection molding, military, aerospace and medical industries. RoHS-Compliant Baths Working in those industries means Classic Plating must have chemistries that are compliant with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive from the European Union. This directive restricts the use of specific hazardous materials found in electrical and electronic products. Fortunately, Surface Technology developed the One-Plate medium phosphorous bath to be RoHS-compliant and says it has other versions in the works, such as low- and high-phos- phorous, nickel-boron, and composites including diamond, PTFE, boron nitride and others. Classic Plating has been happy with its switch to the One-Plate system. "It truly runs beautifully," Morgan says. The shop runs a large EN line with a 1,000-gallon tank. From engineering to installation, Col-Met designs and manufactures powder booths, paint booths and complete finishing systems delivering value through our quality, reliability and velocity. www.colmetsb.com 888-452-6684 sales@colmetsb.com POWDER BOOTHS PAINT BOOTHS OVENS PAINT ARRESTORS PREPARATION EQUIPMENT COMPLETE FINISHING SYSTEMS SIMPLIFYING ELECTROLESS NICKEL

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