Mechanical plating, which also goes by the name of peen plating, mechanical deposition, or impact plating, is a plating process that imparts the coating by cold welding fine metal particles to a workpiece. It's a fascinating process that can help the manufacturing sector, but do you know what the advatages of it are?
Today, the Anochrome Group describe to use what they believe the benefits of Mechanical plating. To start with they state that this method offers;
- No residual hydrogen embrittlement.
- Uniform coating-galling reduced for threaded components.
- Porous substrates can be coated satisfactorily.
- Ideal for sintered components, which normally require surface preparation to stop ingress of aqueous solutions into pores.
- Cost effective replacement for galvanising.
Mixed metal coatings can be supplied with specific advantages such as ductility or high corrosion resistance, especially under certain environments or in contact with other metals.
These include Zinc, Tin, Almac and Inverplex.
ALMAC
Almac® coatings are combinations of aluminium and zinc which give substantially increased corrosion resistance compared with zinc. They are more ductile than zinc and are very advantageous when used in contact with aluminium.
INVERPLEX
Inverplex® is a mixed coating of zinc and tin that has better conductivity(and corrosion resistance) than zinc. It may be supplied passivated and is used for earthing screws.
The components to be coated are placed into a tumbling barrel containing glass beads, reagents and catalysts, which activate and prepare the surface. The coating to be applied is added, in metallic powder form and glass beads of varying sizes ‘cold weld’ the coating on to the activated surface of the component. Similar passivates to electroplating are then applied, prior to drying the parts, lubricants may also be added as part of this process. Mechanical zinc can be used as an undercoat to enhance the performance of organic paint systems.
BARREL
The barrel plating process involves placing the items to be coated in a perforated barrel-shaped cage that is manufactured from nonconductive material. The barrel is then submerged into a series of tanks containing the appropriate chemical solutions, while a slow tumbling action is used to commence the plating action. This is a very cost effective method of coating parts but may not be suitable for large or complex parts.