Industrial plating is simply the technique used to put a metal plating layer onto a part or component used in many different industries with many different applications. With this in mind, Nickel, Copper, Tin, and Silver are very common plating finishes used in large-scale industrial plating. Some less common finishes are Gold, Rhodium, Palladium, and Platinum. The parts requested for plating can range in size from a couple of millimeters to multiple square feet. Deciding which shop for industrial plating needs is critical to the project’s success.
Many plating shops handle large-scale operations of non-precious metal plating. Hoists, automated barrel processes, and reel-to-reel processes are used to process the largest batch sizes possible. Other shops like Proplate are specialty plating shops. We specialize in plating precious metals on smaller-scale operations. We have a department specifically for process development and engineered plating. Our engineers tackle the most cutting-edge plating projects. Proplate is ISO 13485:2016 certified. We take on small to medium-scale developmental projects with repeatable success.
Rhodium Plating
Rhodium plating is a very hard finish and is very sought after in electroplating. Likewise, it is among the world’s hardest metals and is an excellent option for corrosion resistance. The cost of Rhodium is continuously changing. Due to the high cost of Rhodium, it is not plated in large-scale industrial plating shops. Instead, it is used in smaller-scale specialty plating shops like ProPlate®.
Rhodium is one of the rarest metals in the world. Because of its rarity, the price per ounce greatly fluctuates. Also, with the small supply and high demand for Rhodium, the prices often spike. With the cost of Rhodium so high, you will not see parts entirely manufactured out of Rhodium. For this reason, many manufacturers opt for Rhodium plating on their manufactured parts.
Interestingly, songwriter Paul McCartney received a Rhodium-plated disk in 1979 for his record-breaking music career. Although Rhodium is often used for looks in cosmetic applications, at ProPlate®, we use Rhodium as a finish for its metallic qualities that improve an engineered part’s performance.
Additional Precious metal plating at Proplate
- Gold – AMS-E-2422 MIL-G-45204C ASTM B 488
- Gold- Pure/Soft – AMS-F-2425 MIL-G-45204C ASTM B 488
- Silver – AMS-E-2413 MIL-QQ-S-365D ASTM B 700
- Palladium – MIL-P-45209 ASTM B 679
- Palladium Nickel – ASTM B867
- Platinum – ASTM B 684
- Rhodium – AMS-E-2413 MIL-R-46085A ASTM B 634
Learn more about metal finishes offered at ProPlate®
