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An Overview
Painting describes applying paint to a surface of a part in order to provide a desired finish. The paint is often "baked" after application in order to expose any paint flaws. Some methods for applying paint to a part include powder coating and multi-color and fine-line silk screening. A finish may be desired for cosmetic reasons as well as maximizing corrosion resistance, heat dissipation, and surface performance under abuse, and adding greater insulating properties.
Plating describes applying a metal covering to a conductive surface of a part. Plating is used to decorate objects, for corrosion inhibition, to improve solderability, to harden, to improve wearability, to reduce friction, to improve paint adhesion, to alter conductivity, for radiation shielding, and for other purposes. There are several plating methods:
- Covering with a metal sheet and applying heat and pressure to fuse the sheet to the surface.
- Vapor deposition under vacuum: Material is deposited on the surface by condensing a vapor form of the material. Sputter deposition is a type of vapor deposition which consists of ejecting the material in an ionized form from a source.
- Metallizing: Coating metal on non-metallic objects.
- Electroplating: An ionic metal is supplied with electrons to form a non-ionic coating on a substrate.
- Electroless plating: Also known as chemical or auto-catalytic plating, is a non-galvanic type of plating method that involves several simultaneous reactions in an aqueous solution.
Some specific cases of plating are:
- Gold plating: Depositing a thin layer of gold on the surface of other metal. Often used in electronics, to provide a corrosion-resistant electrically conductive layer on copper.
- Silver plating: Depositing a thin layer of silver on the surface of other metal. A cheaper replacement for gold.
- Rhodium plating: Occasionally used on white gold, silver or copper and its alloys.
- Chrome plating: A finishing treatment utilizing the electrolytic deposition of chromium.
- Zinc plating: Prevents oxidation of the protected metal by forming a barrier.
- Tin plating: Used extensively to protect both ferrous and nonferrous surfaces. Often used in the food processing and electronics industries.
- Alloy plating: Co-depositing two or more metals resulting in an electroplated alloy deposit.
- Composite plating: Selecting the size and composition of particles to fine-tune the deposit for wear resistance, high temperature performance, or mechanical strength.
Plating is used on jewelry to give a gold or silver finish and on nanotechnology.
Disclaimer
DPT may not provide some of the services and/or techniques presented in the Knowledge Center. For a full list of services we do offer, please visit our rapid prototyping page.
