News & Events
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What is Gold Medal Worthy Plating?
Upon the completion of a standard plating job, a shop is generally looking at three main properties: visual workmanship, deposited thickness, and overall plating adhesion. When considering workmanship criteria, an inspector would typically consider physical appearance by identifying visible imperfections. These imperfections include (but are not limited to) pits/burns/shadows, bare spots, roughness, etc.…
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Cadmium is also used in making nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries used to power cell phones and cordless appliances. Cadmium is being used for production of cadmium telluride solar panels and aircraft landing gear. Cadmium is also widely used in electroplating due to its extraordinary corrosion resistance particularly in marine environments. For instance, 0.0003 inch of cadmium is said to have equal protection as 0.0010 inch of zinc. When aluminum is being joined with steel or stainless steel, cadmium plating is often used to prevent galvanic corrosion due to dissimilar metals. In electrical applications such as connectors, cadmium is used over zinc as the corrosion product of cadmium in far less voluminous than that of zinc.…
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Tradeshow Announcement! Please join us at the Design 2 Part show in Raleigh NC Meet our Sales Engineers and see what Anoplate can do for you! Next week a couple of our senior Sales Engineers will be attending the Design 2 Part show in Raleigh NC. If you are local to the region, or just in the area and looking to discuss any existing projects or new opportunities, come see us at Booth 237. We’d be happy to discuss any of our 80+ unique finishes with you and see how we can meet all your …
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Aluminum is the 3rd most common element in the earth’s crust and the most abundant metal on earth. It’s no wonder that Anoplate sees a lot of aluminum for everything from to the gold plated connectors to hardcoat anodize on the infamous “scoop on Mars”. While most parts made from aluminum look similar, when it comes to chemical processing of them, whether it’s simple chemical film conversion coating or anodize or plating, it’s critical that we know just what specific aluminum alloy we’re deali…
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Anodize: The Fast and The Furious
FAST. When it comes to colored anodize, a key property to consider if “fastness.” Oxford Dictionary defines fastness as the ability of a material or dye to maintain its color without fading. The organic dyes used to impart color to freshly anodized aluminum are typically rated for both light and heat fastness on a scale from 1 to 10, poorest to best, derived from ISO 2135. These ratings are especially important for architectural applications where sunlight exposure is unavoidable. For these…