{"id":118,"date":"2013-10-15T05:20:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T05:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/?page_id=118"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:04:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T20:04:30","slug":"heavy-build-plating","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/engineered-solutions\/heavy-build-plating\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavy Build Plating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heavy Build Plating (Electroless and Electrolytic Plating)<\/h2>\n

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A\"\"<\/a>dvanced Plating Technologies offers heavy build plating capabilities in electroless nickel<\/a>, silver<\/a>, gold<\/a>, copper<\/a>, lead<\/a> and tin\/lead<\/a> plating services.\u00a0 Current applications include requirements within the bearing, petrochemical, medical and energy storage sectors.\u00a0 Thicknesses as high as 0.025 inches per side have been achieved based upon the specific application and deposit selection.<\/p>\n

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Heavy Build Plating \u2013 What is Heavy Build?<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>Heavy build plating is loosely defined as thicknesses exceeding 0.001\u201d per side depending on the deposit type.\u00a0 In applications such as gold, heavy build is defined as deposits over 0.0002\u201d per side whereas in copper plating, heavy build plating begins at 0.002\u201d per side.\u00a0 The term \u201cheavy build\u201d is loosely used to refer to a deposit that is considerably thicker than common or commercial thicknesses by at least an order of magnitude.<\/p>\n

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Heavy Build Plating \u2013 Why Heavy Build?<\/h2>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Heavy build plating is used for different reasons across a range of industries.\u00a0 Just a few examples of heavy build applications are provided below:<\/p>\n

Medical Industry:<\/b>\u00a0 Heavy build gold plating services are utilized within the medical industry to develop a fully pore-free gold deposit for biocompatibility.\u00a0 Typically, biocompatibility begins around 0.0001\u201d per side with applications as high as 0.0003\u201d being common.\u00a0 Advanced Plating Technology offers duplex heavy build gold deposits to further reduce porosity of heavy build gold.<\/p>\n

Bearing Industry:<\/b>\u00a0 Heavy build lead and tin\/lead plating services are commonly used in the bearing industry to provide a plated babbitt layer.\u00a0 The soft babbitt deposit offers a lubricous, anti-galling surface that permits embedding of particulate in heavier deposits.\u00a0 \u00a0Thinner plated babbitt layers in bearings and bushings are commonly used for break-in purposes on highly loaded applications, generally in the range of 3,000 to 8,000 PSI where the surface speed is relatively low.\u00a0 Heavier build coatings are used in loadings up to 3,000 PSI where the thicker coating allows for embedding of contaminants, especially on grooved bearing, bushing or thrust-washer designs.<\/p>\n

Petrochemical Industry:<\/b>\u00a0 Heavy build silver plating and high phosphorus electroless nickel plating services are commonly used in the petrochemical industry where high chemical resistance and\/or wear resistance are design concerns.\u00a0 Applications of heavy build high phosphorus electroless nickel to 0.005\u201d per side for natural gas vacuum pumps or sweet crude valve stems have been provided.\u00a0 Heavy build silver plating of over 0.020\u201d per side has been used for resistance to chlorine in chlorine screw compressor bearings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ammunition Industry:<\/b>\u00a0 Heavy build copper plating of up to 0.020\u201d per side on bullets and projectiles is utilized within the ammunition industry.\u00a0 Typically, copper jackets can not be drawn consistently below 0.010\u201d per side.\u00a0 As such, projectile applications that require a jacket below 0.010\u201d are an excellent fit for heavy build copper plating services.\u00a0 Plated copper is also used on projectiles that can not have a drawn copper jacket applied, such as frangible bullet applications.<\/p>\n

Heat Treatment Industry:<\/b>\u00a0 Heavy build copper plating is commonly used as a heat treatment stop-off for selective carburizing or nitriding of steel components.\u00a0 After heat treating, heavy plated copper deposits can be stripped or machined away to provide variable surface hardness across a product.<\/p>\n

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Heavy Build Plating \u2013 Why Advanced Plating Technologies?<\/h2>\n

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The proper application of heavy build deposits is a unique and demanding subset of the metal finishing industry.\u00a0 As in deep-sea diving, issues that are not a problem at common thicknesses can become very severe several orders of magnitude beyond common commercial thicknesses.\u00a0 Issues that can arise when heavy build plating in any finish include:<\/p>\n

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  1. Maintaining part dimensional tolerance;<\/li>\n
  2. Maintaining surface finish on critical surfaces;<\/li>\n
  3. Preventing nodulation or pitting of the plated deposit;<\/li>\n
  4. Addressing racking locations and rack marks;<\/li>\n
  5. Adjusting bath parameters and plating rates to yield successful deposits;<\/li>\n
  6. Minimizing deposit stress in tensile stressed deposits;<\/li>\n
  7. Accurately measuring heavy build deposits;<\/li>\n
  8. Masking of features that cannot accept heavy build deposits due to tolerance issues.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Advanced Plating Technologies has an interest in pursuing heavy build deposits beyond what is commonly considered possible.\u00a0 The technical sales and engineering group at APT welcomes the opportunity to discuss your specific heavy build application and design considerations.<\/p>\n

    You can contact<\/a> a member of our technical sales group to discuss your specific application.\u00a0 If submitting a request for quote<\/a> from our website, a text box is provided to detail heavy build plating requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Heavy Build Plating (Electroless and Electrolytic Plating)   Advanced Plating Technologies offers heavy build plating capabilities in electroless nickel, silver,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3985,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-118","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7G6ce-1U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/118\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advancedplatingtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}