What Is Mechanical Plating?

Mechanical plating is a coating process invented by Erith Clayton of the Tainton Company of Baltimore, Maryland in the 1940s and 1950s. Mechanical plating is a process that uses metal, chemical adsorption deposition and mechanical collision to form a metal powder coating on the surface of a workpiece at normal temperature and pressure. Metal powder can be metal zinc, zinc-aluminum, zinc-tin or other non-ferrous metals and alloys. The typical mechanical plating process is to place the pre-plated parts into a mechanically rotating drum, add water and an impact medium (glass shot), and rotate the drum to form a fluid environment with collision and rubbing effects. Metal powder and medicament are added according to a predetermined coating thickness, and the surface of the part is plated under the combined effect of chemical medicament and mechanical collision.