Electroplating is a great way to protect metal and bring it back to life. It brings out original details and protects the metal. Using commercial coating is a good idea no matter what your business is.
Electroplating is when a piece of metal gets dipped into a solution that has another metal dissolved in it. Then an electric current gets run through both the piece being plated and the plating solution. The ion of the plating material gets attracted to the piece dipped into the solution. The piece stays in the plating solution for several minutes to allow metal coating to get to the right thickness.
Chrome is what most people think of when they think of commercial coatings. But they aren’t the only ones. Gold, brass, tin and nickel are also used as coatings. Metal coatings applications happen by either the barrel method or the rack method. They both have their uses. Barrel electroplating is best for pieces that are oddly shaped or for small jobs. Rack plating is good for large jobs of regularly shaped objects. The piece is wired to the rack so that the electricity can flow through the pieces and attract the ions of the metals.
Hardware restoration is becoming a popular use of metal plating. Some people use antique hardware to complete their homes. It could be because they are renovating an older home and they want to use pieces of the right time period, or it could be because they are recycling old hardware into their new homes. Yet another reason is that it might be their business to collect old knobs, pulls or chandeliers to sell. Whatever their reasons are, they want to bring the life back to those pieces.
An example of this would be an antique drawer pull. Brass commercial coatings were originally applied to that pull. After years of use, parts of the plating start to wear off. The owner wants it to look like it did in the past. So, they send it to an electroplating company, like American Plating Company in the St. Louis area, to get it plated. When the plating process ends, the owner can get any finish that he wants on it. It can be polished, brushed or satin finished. This will give the pull its original look, and when applied to a cabinet that has been refinished it brings the antique piece back to life.
Commercial coating protects the metal from rust, wear and corrosion, makes it stronger and brings out the beauty of the piece. At American Plating Company, It doesn’t matter if you need to get a lot of industrial parts and equipment plated or if you are getting all the fixtures and hardware in your home plated they can make any job big or small, beautiful and professional.
