ELECTROPLATING SERVICES
ProPlate’s dedicated new product development team supports projects from concept through commercialization through our proven process roadmap.
ProPlate® has a library of solutions for a wide range of parts and industries. We are always pleased to take on new challenging projects to expand our electroplating services.
Electroplating Services & Prototyping
Ongoing development of parts and components is our customer’s most formidable challenge. Professional Plating, Inc. recognizes this challenge and is prepared to work jointly to optimize your prototype electroplating development. Our combination of tenure in chemistry, electroplating process, and industry experience provides a competent mix of talent in identifying effective alternatives.
Areas of Expertise
We specialize in electroplating services for a wide variety of small and large parts. These include connectors, switches, catheters, guide wires, slip rings, contacts/pins, hearing aid batteries, springs, tubes, stamped parts, CNC precision machined parts, plungers, brackets, and coils. Our services include Gold plating, Nickel Plating, Silver plating, Copper plating, Rhodium plating, and Palladium plating.
ProPlate® collaborates with value driven companies around the world to provide innovative engineered metallization solutions and to improve people’s lives.
Engineered Electroplating Services
ProPlate® has engineered the chemistry and production processes to be flexible to our customer’s needs. We recognize that not all parts or components need the standard MIL specifications for finishing. Therefore, our staff of professionals is equipped with the tools to provide the metal finish combinations that will meet your varying needs.
Metal finishes such as Gold electroplating require different levels of lubricity, hardness, or consistent coverage. ProPlate® employs patented electroplating processes for parts and components preparation, masking, and plating.
Selective Plating
Historically, selective plating has been the exclusive province of continuous reel-to-reel plating operations where various mechanical modifications are made to the machine apparatus. These devices typically involve rubber band-like masking that sandwiches the parts in the area where plating is not desired. ProPlate® has developed tools and methods for accomplishing selective plating on a variety of parts ranging in many shapes and sizes. There are a variety of materials and fabricating techniques employed that ProPlate® has developed through trial and error to arrive at a robust, fast, and flexible system. The basic design elements and materials can be adapted to the particulars of the customer part design. We are not constrained by the limited capabilities of the reel-to-reel machine as our methods allow parts to be transported to any plating bath and sequence and dwell in the bath for as long as required to achieve the desired thickness.
ProPlate® has seen a demand for increasingly fine and precise selective electroplating. Medical devices are becoming ever smaller and more complex in their shapes and functions. Gold and Platinum are incredibly dense and therefore have great value as materials for radiopaque marking. Due to the inherent limitations of marker shape, the use of Gold and Platinum as an alternative to traditional radiopaque marker bands has been limited. A ring shape or mostly ring-shaped marker band can only be located on the catheter shaft in proximity to the surgical device.
ProPlate® recognized that the electroplating process can deposit the same Gold or Platinum but can take the science a considerable step further by depositing the marker material directly onto the surgical device itself, rather than adjacent to the device and on the catheter shaft. Further, because electroplating is an additive manufacturing process, the radiopaque marker shape can be virtually any shape. The shape of a selectively electrodeposited marker is only limited by the imagination of the designer.P
Selective Plating Process:
- A masking material is applied to the entire surface of the device. The maskant is applied using a CNC-application system that provides consistent application and thickness. It is RoHS-compliant, strongly adherent to base substrate, chemically resistant to the electroplating process, and easily removable using RoHS-compliant chemistries.
- The maskant is selectively removed from the medical device in those areas where the radiopaque mark is to be placed using a CNC-controlled removal tool. Our dimensional controls are at +/- 0.005” inches.
- The components are electroplated to the desired thickness. The maskant, which is still present on some surfaces of the part, inhibits metal deposition in those areas. The electrodeposit will be accepted where the maskant was previously removed via the CNC removal tool and where there is exposed metal.
- The remaining maskant is dissolved and removed from the parts using that RoHS-compliant chemistry.
Our selective electroplating process is unique in the industry. We’ve spent many years developing and perfecting its elements. It is also a very productive process. Using CNC tools and our ability to in-house engineer parts handling equipment, we can achieve very high production rates.
Have more Questions? Request a capabilities presentation with one of our business development specialists.
Metal Finishes at ProPlate®
Contact us to request information about our metallization services.
We Are Dedicated to Partnering With Our Customers
Professional Plating, Inc. is dedicated to solving our customers’ toughest plating-related challenges by working with them on the front end of the design and engineering process. We engineer custom solutions designed specifically for your unique requirements. ProPlate® has pioneered selective precious metal plating innovations and continuously strives to improve your part’s application and performance while driving down costs.
