PacAero has decades of experience in ceramic-to-metal finishing. We are experts in plating a variety of metals including: aluminum, titanium, iron/nickel alloys, copper and even our explosively bimetallic transition materials. We have a staff of certified chemical and process engineers which allows us to plate your parts in house where we can maintain finite control over these critical finishing process.
PacAero offers Nadcap Certified onsite plating services with a focus on high-quality, efficient solutions tailored to your needs. We specialize in Electrolytic and Electroless Nickel plating, Electrolytic Gold plating, and Conversion Coating, providing exceptional results for a variety of industries, including aerospace, defense, electronics, automotive, medical devices, telecommunications, and marine.
Additionally, we provide high precision plating for microwave and RF packages. Once your housings are manufactured, we handle the plating process in-house, ensuring tighter process control and faster turnaround times to meet your deadlines.
In the chromate conversion process, the metal surface of a part is converted to a superficial layer containing a complex mixture of chromium compounds. The chromate film is soft when freshly formed, but once dried and aged, the film becomes more abrasive resistant. Chromate conversion coatings provide excellent corrosion resistance.
Electroless nickel describes the plating of nickel deposits, which may contain phosphorus and boron, onto catalytic metallic or catalyzed non-metallic substrates by chemical reduction. Unlike electrolytic plated nickel coatings, electroless nickel coatings produce very uniform, hard, and lubricious coatings, without an externally applied electric current, and are normally identified according to their phosphorus content.
Electrolytic gold offers high electrical conductivity, solder-ability, weld-ability, infrared-reflectivity, and excellent corrosion resistance (as well as sealing the nickel surface to eliminate passivation). Electrolytic gold is primarily used in the electrical industry for RF connectors and printed circuits, and in the electronics industry for transistor integrated circuits.
Unlike electroless nickel, electrolytic nickel uses an external current supply to plate the nickel to various substrates. It is one of the most widely used types of plating due to fact it can be welded unlike electroless nickel. Electrolytic nickel comes in different forms, and is one of the most popular being sulfamate nickel, which has a dull, matte finish, and is often used as an undercoating for gold applications.
*Grade call-outs on the nickel specifications are for thickness. PacAero generally calls out its own thickness ranges.
**Thickness ranges are best case, these can be effected by geometry and base metal.
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