.platingprocess is a method of laying down a layer of metal on a conductive body using the principle of electrolysis.platingis a surface processing method containing pre-plated metal in a salt solution, with the plated base metal as the cathode, through electrolytic action, so that the plating solution in the pre-plated metal cations in the base metal surface deposition, the formation of a coating.
Common plating classifications include:chemical plating、plating、electroforming, and vacuum plating.
1、Electroplating is the process of using electrolysis to deposit metal or alloy on the surface of the workpiece to form a uniform, dense and well-bonded metal layer, which is called electroplating.
2、Common plating classification
（1）chemical plating(autocatalytic plating)
The process by which metal ions in the plating solution are catalytically reduced to form a metal coating on the surface of an activated treated substrate. This is a process engineering that is mostly involved in our process, and it is through such a process that we can carry out post-processing such as plating, mostly as a pre-treatment process for plastic parts.
（2） plating
The process of depositing a uniform, dense, well-bonded layer of metal or alloy on the surface of a part using electrolysis is a tedious process, but it has many advantages, such as the variety of metals deposited, the variety of colors that can be obtained, and the relatively low cost compared to similar processes.
(3) Electroforming
The process of making or reproducing metal products by depositing metal on a mold through electrolysis (which separates the mold from the metal deposit). This treatment is used when we require the final part to have a special surface effect such as clear and obvious polished and etched lines of separation or special sharp corners, etc. Generally, copper is used to make the shape of a part and then the alloy is deposited on its surface by means of electroplating, usually with a thickness of several tens of millimeters. The parts processed in this way will have a special effect on the angles and the boundaries of several surfaces to meet the needs of the design, usually we see many plastic parts with high quality requirements after plating and etching plating effect boundaries are usually designed by such means. The sharp edges of the keypad seen in the picture below will achieve good appearance if the electroforming process is used in the manufacturing.
（4）vacuum plating.
Vacuum plating mainly includes vacuum vapor deposition, sputtering plating and ion plating, all of which are used to deposit various metal and non-metal films on the surface of plastic parts by distillation or sputtering under vacuum conditions, which can obtain very thin surface coatings with the outstanding advantage of fast adhesion, but the price is also higher and the types of metals that can be operated are less, so they are generally used for more It is generally used as a functional coating for high-grade products, for example, as an internal shielding layer.
3、The use of plating process.
(1) Anti-corrosion
(2) Protective decoration
(3) Anti-wear
(4) electrical properties: according to the working requirements of the parts, to provide electrical conductivity or insulation properties of the coating