Greeting everybody

I have been just promoted to be incharge about the
Electroplating/Galvanize line and I believe there is a way to enhance
it but I am not sure How?

Right now I am looking for someone to help me out! we are experiencing
these problems:

1- In some items there is no homogeneity after electroplating. 
2- Inner corners are not treated 
3- Inner holes and cuts are not treated 
4- The coating becomes yellow sometimes ? 
5- The Contact points between the main bars (Cathode) and the hangers
become very hot (we have to cool it by water from time to time)


And I hope to get the following answers:

1- Investigate the current process and each stage. 
2- Increase the efficiency (time and quality) and reduce cost 
3- Is the current materials and its concentration right ? 
4- Can we add more lines? in the same container!? 
5- How can we improve the HCL cleaning stage! 
6- Ways to remove the impurity that sink at the bottom of the
electroplating container (we have to pump it and clean the container
every month.
7- Links and more information about Electroplating industry 
8- Ways to measure the operation conditions (A/V/Chemicals castration/...) 
9- How to get a good quotation for the used materials 
 

Please to know more information about the current situation and
conditions please check this out this link (description for the whole
current process with some pictures)
http://free.7host06.com/electroplating/

Thanks in advance and my best regards,

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 25 Feb 2005 05:49 PST

Congratulations on your advancement.

Can you tell me, please, where you are located (just the city and
state or province, and country will be fine).

It makes a difference in terms of the resources that might be
available to assist you.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by digitalfuture-ga on 27 Feb 2005 07:53 PST

Dear pafalafa-ga,

Thank you for your kind words :) I hope this promotion is just the start.

Regarding your Q? we are Located in Saudi Arabia. I hope that it be helpful.

1- In some items there is no homogeneity after electroplating. 
2- Inner corners are not treated 
3- Inner holes and cuts are not treated 
4- The coating becomes yellow sometimes ? 
5- The Contact points between the main bars (Cathode) and the hangers
become very hot (we have to cool it by water from time to time)

I am no expert in this area, but certain points spring to mind.

For 1) it might be the same as 2) and 3) but it is worth looking at
how things are physically handled - it could be grease from hands that
is the problem.

2) and 3) try moving the liquid - it is not homogenous

4) no idea - that depends on what you .. uh huh - take some of the
yellow items off for analysis. I think I can guess what is in there,
but would not wish to appear a fool.

5) Things normally get hot when current is passing through them too easily.
I would be inclined to have each item on its own hook and some sort of
resistor to limit the current flow for each of them. Ahem rheostat or
current limiter.

I think your cleaning and flow problems could be solved with a simple
syphon at the bottom, a filter /outside/ the tank, and a pump to
return the syphoned fluid to the tank - preferably from multiple
outlets to create some gentle swirl in the liquid.

My gut instinct is that you are plating the stuff too fast, also by
giving all the items a common power source, distributed only by
'connection' to the rack, you are introducing a random element within
each batch.
ie: your kit is over clocked

Another gut instinct is that something is happening between the
Hydrochloric Acid cleaning stage and the parts getting into the sheep
dip.

Also ... how many sources of zinc do you have in the bath, what shape
are they, hopefully plates or sheets. Hopefully lots of them.

A fascinating question - hopefully you'll get some comments and an
Answer that secures your promotion (although I would say that asking
the question here more than justifies it).

Dear frde-ga,

Thank you so much for your interesting comment, it shows that you know
what are you talking about! :)

1- I went back and I checked and I added some more pics to let us see
what I am talking about.

2- yes we have add two air pipes with some holes in the bottom of the
container so it will help moving the liquid around.

4- ummm, in the yellow items ... we have to put them again after
adding more chemicals.

5- So far we have some filters that clean up the liquid which is working 24h

6- ? I have no clow in what are you saying :) do you think it will
make a difference?

7- How do we know, if we are overclocking or not? is there any type formula!?

8- yes you are right, we are using the plat type and we are using 10 each side

Thank you soo much again for your great instinct :) they are really
helpful and they add more clarification.... to what I want to explain.