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Surface Finishing Tutorial

#253 Surface Conditioning of Plating Substrate

Category : Electroplating
August19, 2016

Surface conditioning of substrates is an extremely important process prior to performing surface treatment, including electroplating. The required surface patterns vary from heavy conditioning on pre-plating substrates to light conditioning, where texturing is applied within the plating film.

(1) Buffing

This is a conventional method of surface polishing that uses abrasive compounds applied around cloth wheels to polish the material.This polishing method can produce a wide range of surface roughness, from emery buffing using abrasive compounds glued to the buff for rough polishing to a grazing finish applying an oil-based abrasive compound each time. The buffing materials are also available in various forms, such as cotton, e.g. calico, and hemp, thick cardboard, fibers, animal hair, and scratch cloth with metal wires stitched into it.   image

(2) Polishing by barrel tumbling

In this method, a barrel containing workpieces is rotated to polish workpiece surfaces. This method can be performed in several ways, such as lapping that uses only workpieces or with a chemical solution to facilitate the polishing, and stone polishing that use workpieces with polishing stones and/or aqueous solution.   image

(3) Polishing by vibratory barrel

Oscillation is applied to the tumbling barrel so that workpieces are polished in areas other than the sliding surfaces of workpieces and polishing stones. Polishing speed of this method is several times faster than that of polishing by tumbling only.   image

(4) Belt polishing

This is a polishing method using an endless belt with abrasive compounds glued onto it. Polishing tasks can be performed more efficiently because of the broader polishing surface compared to emery buffing.   image

(5) Blasting

This is a method for creating a satin finish on the workpiece surface by spraying metal particles or ceramic powders using pneumatic pressure or centrifugal force.   image

(6) Others

To add patterns to plating layers, methods, including diamond-cutting and spin texturing, are available. Of course, scratches made by such methods are extremely shallow.

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