Making (and Minimizing) Contact
Rack electroplating is the most popular type of electroplating for the simple reason that the design, delicacy or large size of some parts makes barrel electroplating more difficult. Despite the many benefits of rack electroplating, however, there is one inherent drawback: contact points.
When you rack plate a part, there is always going to be a contact point – the point where the part comes into contact with the rack where it is fixtures to our tooling.
There will be little zinc deposited in this area. However, because zinc is naturally a sacrificial coating, the zinc surrounding the contact point will protect the exposed metal. While corrosion won’t be a problem, cosmetically the part will be imperfect.
While it’s impossible for us – or for any plating company – to eliminate the contact point, our amazing team of rack plating experts is able to do two things to ensure the contact point is as unnoticeable as possible:
- Their exceptional judgment in selecting the ideal rack design from our over 80 options, coupled with their unmatched expertise in placing parts on the rack, enable them to minimize the size of the contact point.
- They will find the least conspicuous location possible for the contact point.
If appearances are particularly important for any of your parts, please be sure to let us know so we can do whatever it takes to minimize the cosmetic impact of these contact points. It should be noted, however, that this may reduce the number of parts that can fit on the racks and hence increase the number of racks required. If this is the case, we’ll let you know what any cost premium might be so you can decide if it’s a fair trade-off for the enhanced cosmetic benefits.