Brush plating

Brush plating is a portable method of electroplating localized areas without the use of an immersion tank. It is primarily used for enhancing surfaces on OEM components or for permanent repairs.
Brush plating equipment is portable, enabling technicians to plate parts in their functioning state, saving companies money and minimizing down time. In contrast to tank plating, Brush plating does not require extensive masking, special fixtures, or elaborate equipment. Deposits have excellent adhesion and can be plated at rates that are 40 to 60 times faster than conventional tank plating.
Brush plating affords numerous benefits over other metal repair processes such as weld hardfacing, thermal spraying, or bath electroplating including:

• Portability of the equipment,

• Capability for very rapid metal build-up,

• Disassembly of machinery/parts minimized,

• Reduces amount of masking required as with bath electroplating,

• Permits plating of parts too large for normal plating tanks,

• The ability to coat to size with little or no post-machining in most cases,

• Excellent adhesion to most base materials (cast iron, nickel and cobalt based alloys, steels)

• Some coatings produce extremely low friciton coatings ≅ 0,07 (Teflon® ≅ 0,04)

• Dense coatings,

• Minimization of hydrogen embrittlement,

• Very low process temperature (20-45 °C) - no thermal distortion,

• Thickness control from 0.25 microns

Damage from wear, corrosion, or mis-machining can be repaired using Brush plating. In addition, deposits can also offer wear resistance, low electrical contact resistance, or corrosion protection.
Brush Plating can deposit 16 standard metals and as well as:

• Precious metals: Gold, silver, Palladium, Rhodium

• Other metals: Nickel, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Tin, Zinc

• Alloys: Cobalt Nickel, Babbit, Nickel Tungsten, Tin-Lead, Cobalt-Tungsten, Bronze