Automotive
Auto
Drives
Plating
in S.C.
PAlmeTTo PlATing ThriveS on ingenuiTy,
AuTomoTive PArTS AnD noT SAying ���no.���
By Tim Pennington, Editor
T
he first time John Cutchin
tried his hand in the plating
business, he was still in high
school and a little wet behind the
ears when it came to the science
and chemistry of surface finishing.
��I plated a pair of baby shoes,��
Cutchin says. ��It was just something I wanted to try, and it was
interesting.��
Several decades later and now
the owner of Palmetto Plating in
Easley, S.C., Cutchin is still plating
shoes, albeit the casings for brake
shoe pads for U.S. vehicles.
More than 1 million of them
pass through the tanks each year
at Palmetto, which specializes in
anodizing, black oxide, chromate
conversion coatings, decorative and
hard chrome, electroless nickel,
pickling and passivation.
hunter and John Cutchin in their
easley, S.C., plant, Palmetto Plating,
which specializes in automotive parts
such as brakes.
12
JANUARY 2013