Plating Processes
Copper
Other Processes
Copper Plating
Benefits & Uses
Copper plating is widely used in a number of industries. It offers a number of advantages as an electroplated finish including:
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Excellent conductivity
Copper offers excellent electrical conductivity. This makes it a desired finish for many electrical-related applications. -
Soft & Ductile
Copper is a soft and ductile metal. These characteristics make it beneficial for parts that are to be deformed in some way—bent, crimped, etc. Properly copper plated parts will maintain excellent adhesion even when being subjected to deformation. -
Solderability
Copper can be soldered. This property also is advantageous for electrical applications. -
Heat Treat Stop-off
Steel parts to be heat treated are sometimes copper plated to allow for subsequent “selective” heat treating. After plating (and before heat treating), one or more areas of these parts may be machined to remove the copper plating. During heat treating, the areas of the part without copper will be heat treated while the areas with sufficient copper plating will not be heat treated (and will remain more ductile). A similar approach is used for heat treated steel screws with sems washers. With this type of product, the entire sems washer is copper plated and then assembled to the screw—prior to heat treating. During the heat treatment process, the screw gets heat treated and the washer doesn’t. After the heat treatment process is completed, it is then quite common for any remaining copper plating to be removed (by stripping) from the steel parts. -
Excellent Undercoat for other Metal Finishes
Copper base coats under nickel plating and/or tin plating are quite common—on both ferrous and non-ferrous base metals. Copper provides smooth and uniform coverage of base metals and can also help to promote better adhesion of the final plated finish. The corrosion resistance of nickel plated steel parts can be improved when copper is applied as a base coat (when both the copper and the nickel are applied at sufficient thicknesses).
Our Capabilities
Varland Metal Service has extensive capabilities and advantages when it comes to barrel copper plating. We have the ability to copper plate over ferrous alloys including low and high carbon steels (including heat treated/case hardened steels), stainless steel, etc. We also have years of experience copper plating (quite often as a base coat prior to nickel plating) on copper alloys including brass, copper, and phosphorous bronze. We can apply copper as a final finish or as a base coat under nickel or tin plating.
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Excellent Adhesion
Our experience combined with our computerized process control allows us to copper plate with extremely high reliability and quality. Our copper plating processes provide excellent adhesion and have the ability to pass even the toughest adhesion tests. Parts that get crimped, bent, or staked during assembly will be adherent. Parts that get brazed or soldered will not blister when heated to the temperatures necessary for these operations. -
Delicate Parts
Our plating process control and engineered material handling solutions allow us to barrel plate externally threaded and dimensionally-critical parts with excellent success.Note: to achieve good results, raw parts must be properly engineered to allow for plating build-up.
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Production Capacity
We have the production capacity to handle your copper plating requirements. Computerized process control ensures consistent and highly reliabile plating. Our large copper plating production capacity also allows us extremely quick turn-around times—typically three to five days in house.
Contact Varland today to find out more about our copper plating capabilities and how we can help you with your copper plating needs.