What Is Electroplating?

Electroplating has existed for decades and evolved from being an art to a small but consequential part of science. It is also considered part of engineering and has ever widening applications in different areas of engineering. Over the last few decades, the use of the electroplating process has increased in manufacturing electrical or electronic components, including optics, micro and macro, sensors, and opto-electronics. Of course, it still remains the single most important process where gold plating or silver or any other metal plating is concerned.

Electroplating is also known as electrodeposition and is used for producing a metallic coating on the surface of an object using electric current. The process of electroplating requires adding a negative charge on the object to be plated and then immersing it in an ionic solution carrying positive charge. The positively charged ions are attracted to the negative charged surface of the object and thus coating takes place.

Types of Electroplating

The process of electroplating is used for coating any type of object with specific metals, including gold, silver, nickel, chromium, and aluminum. There are 4 types of electroplating processes, and the type of process to be used depends primarily on the object to be coated, the properties to be enhanced and metal to be used for coating. The different types of electroplating processes include:

Rack Plating

Rack plating is an electroplating process that is performed using a rack for holding the parts of an object that needs to be plated. In rack plating, the work piece or object is mounted on the rack and then immersed in the plating solution. It is also known as batch plating.

Barrel Plating

Barrel plating is considered an economical option of electroplating and is used where customers have specific plating requirements. Barrel plating accommodates objects of different shapes and sizes for plating purposes. There are 2 different types of barrels used for plating -e horizontal barrel and oblique barrel.

Mass Plating

Where small objects need to undergo plating in large or bulk quantities, then the mass plating process is applied. This type of electroplating process cannot be used for delicate objects or work pieces. Mass plating can take place using barrel plating methods.

In-Line Plating

In-line plating is normally used when plating as well as finishing process needs to be integrated into the primary production line. In-line plating has several benefits, including a significant reduction in quantity of plating material required, exclusion of the pre-plating treatment steps, lower consumption of energy, and there is less waste discharge.