Electroplating uses an electric current to bond a metal object with another substance. Brush plating is more accurate and can be used for aesthetic or functional purposes. It has an adhesion strength of 14,000 psi and is useful for scaling and when tank plating is not practical.
Electroplating is a process that is used to cover a metal object with a layer of some other substance by using an electric current to bond the two. In brush plating, a brush saturated with the plating material is used to paint the material onto the object to be plated. Plating can be done to increase the strength of a metal part, to scale a part, or for aesthetic reasons. Brush plating is more accurate than other electroplating methods.
A piece of stainless steel covered with a cloth is used as a brush. The bare end of the steel is attached to the positive node of a power source with a small enough electric current, and the other node of the power source is attached to the object to be plated. Like an artist painting a canvas, the operator dips the cloth end of the brush into a vat of the electroplating solution, submerging the brush. He or she then paints the material onto the object to be plated. The current flowing through both the brush and the object bonds the plating to the object.
Often, the goal of plating a metal part is to protect the metal from damage or corrosion. For example, parts of a pump that will be exposed to water can be plated to prevent rusting. In some cases, plating is done for purely aesthetic reasons, such as when gold is plated over a less expensive metal to make jewelry. Plating can also be used to resize parts that have worn out or been manufactured to the wrong size. Brush plating is especially useful for scaling because the person doing the plating can apply different amounts of plating material to different areas of the same part.
In addition to the accuracy possible with brush plating, several other features make it preferable to vat plating, which is a plating method by dipping the metal in a vat of galvanic material and then passing an electric current through it. Brush plating has an adhesion strength of approximately 14,000 pounds per square inch (about 984 kilograms per square centimeter), which is more than double the adhesion strength of tank plating. Brush plating can also be used when tank plating would not be practical, such as when a part cannot be removed from the machine or when the part is too large to fit into a standard tank.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
