Plating

Question: We are experiencing patterns and streaking coming out of our EN (electroless nickel) bath. What can we do to rectify this?

Marc Aleksinas is the business manager at Metal Chem in the Greenville, South Carolina area. Metal Chem develops, manufactures, and services products used in the metal finishing industry, including electroless nickel and wastewater treatment chemicals. An avid soccer fan, Aleksinas played at Vanderbilt University.

Metal Finishing Technologies In Bristol, Connecticut, says the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (Nadcap) has officially accredited the company’s nickel sulfamate plating processes.

Dixie Industrial Finishing in Tucker, Georgia, has changed name to Durable Industrial Finishing and will be referred to as Difco. While the company is currently celebrating 60 years of business, Difco believes the time to make a name change is now.

Reliable Plating Works (RPW), one of the largest nickel-chrome platers in Wisconsin with over 100 employees, has launched a Custom Chrome division.

Tyler Goad is the Operations Manager at GOAD Company in the Kansas City, Missouri area, a custom fabricator of corrosion resistant tanks and equipment to the chemical processing industry. He joined the company in 2011, after earning a bachelor's degree in business administration and management from the University of Missouri.

Each year, the National Association for Surface Finishing (NASF) recognizes members who stand out amongst their peers for their contributions to the finishing industry on the local and national levels. Although SUR/FIN 2020 in Atlanta was postponed due to COVID-19, the Awards Committee of NASF felt it important to still recognize these deserving members and will be presented their physical awards during SUR/FIN 2021 in Detroit, Michigan.

The future is looking ‘bright’ for the team at Technical Plating in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. In the past two years, they have added an additional bright tin line, a second electroless nickel line, a bright nickel line, another passivation line and another reel-to-reel line, bringing their total to 17 lines.

As everyone in the shipbuilding industry knows, repairs are a constant and inevitable fact of marine life, resulting in costly downtime and loss of earnings. Saltwater and harsh operating conditions cause corrosion and damage to key components such as pumps, valves and motors, necessitating regular maintenance or replacement. Commonly used to repair or salvage components and extend in-service life, surface coatings brings many advantages, including corrosion protection and wear resistance.

To an eye doctor, 20/20 translates into perfect vision, the ability to focus equally well on what’s close at hand and what’s far away. As a year, however, 2020 has meant anything but certainty and precise vision, especially in the finishing and coatings industry.

Tyler Thomas is vice president and general manager at Technical Plating in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He is active in the finishing community as vice president of the NASF chapter in Minneapolis.

Monique Guyse, a senior sales perfectionist at PlateCo in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, says they are big believers in “Doing it right the first time.” 

William Grady Harder, Jr., an owner and president of Electro Lab II in Olsmar, Florida since 1977, passed at 82 on July 19.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on June 22, 2020, released the prepublication version of final regulations establishing “significant new use rules” for long-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylate (LCPFAC) chemical substances, a subset of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

AOTCO Metal Finishing in Billerica, Massachusetts, has been awarded ISO 13485:2016 certification, allowing ot to meet the strict regulations and demanding requirements of the medical device industry.

How apropos that a third-generation finishing operation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is celebrating the installation of its third line. That is the case at Master Finish, which was founded by John Mulder in 1959, the son of immigrants from the Netherlands who started Master Finishing and Deburring company to help local stamping and casting facilities with the automatic removal of flash and burrs from the products they produced.

Nadcap will hold its Nadcap Management Council (NMC) and Task Group meetings for finishers, coaters and others from the manufacturing sector from Oct. 19 to Oct. 22 in Pittsburgh, PA. 

The ASETS Defense 8th Workshop on Sustainable Surface Engineering for Aerospace and Defense will be held virtually, August 4-6.