Galvanic surface treatment by drum plating
In many cases a cost-effective process!
Galvanic or chemical surface treatment is mostly carried out either in the form of individual suspension or, in the case of bulk pourable goods, often in the so-called barrel or drum plating process.
How does drum plating work?
For this purpose, the material to be treated is filled into a barrel, which is usually made of plastic for electroplating, otherwise of steel, if necessary with an appropriate lining. During electroplating, the barrel is lowered into an electrolyte tank located under the barrel, which also contains the anodes.
The barrel now rotates in the electrolyte. The material to be plated is thus mixed in the barrel body. This ensures uniform coating thickness growth in the entire fabric package. Furthermore, as is typical of the process, there are no suspension points (contact points or points), which are necessary in the case of suspension coating and usually have no coating. The parts are dried by spinning with hot air support.
For which goods is this process suitable?
It must be taken into account with drum plating that bending, scratches, impact points and scuffing will occur. Thus, depending on the weight of the individual parts, damage to external threads is to be expected. Goods that tend to snag or nest are not suitable for this type of machining. In the case of coating processes which require a tight-fitting, permanent contact, processing by the barrel plating process is also ruled out. These include the anodizing process and chrome-plating coatings such as bright chrome, hard chrome or black chrome.
For the coating of bulk materials for copper plating, nickel plating (matt or bright, electroless nickel), tin plating or for pure chemical dip treatment (e.g. pickling, degreasing), processing by means of rotating drums is a cost-effective process.
Rieger Metallveredlung has a fully automatic machine for this purpose. Furthermore, small quantities can be processed in the manual plant.
