Here at Karas Plating we are known for our surface coating, electroplating and other metal finishing solutions, but our list of processes doesn’t end there. Even if you have no need for a specific finish, we have several services that can benefit multiple industries. Our customers around the country return to us again and again for the extensive range of blasting and cleaning processes we provide.
What other processes does Karas Plating provide?
As the North West’s foremost metal finishing company, we understand the importance of high-quality base materials to numerous industries. To ensure that our customers are utilising nothing but the best for their own companies, we offer a wide range of blasting and cleaning processes, many of which we use ourselves when preparing substrate for plating.
These include:
Stripping existing plating
Shot blasting
Tumble blasting
Hand blasting
Aqua-blasting
Ultrasonic cleaning
De-greasing
Brush plating
STRIPPING EXISTING PLATING
At Karas Plating, we don’t just coat new components. We offer a comprehensive range of techniques for stripping a variety of coatings from your existing components. These include both plated and painted coatings, and allows you to recover and reuse scrapped and worn parts.
Likewise, if you’ve had to reject poorly-plated components from your previous finisher, or imported a consignment of parts with a sub-standard coating, we can strip them down before applying the quality of finish that they deserve.
Tumble blasting
Tumble blasting is a way of removing hard-to-reach flash and burrs from metal components. Consisting of a large barrel (think of a washing machine drum and you’re in the right area) and a particle blasting device.
The barrel is loaded with components and rotated while the particle blaster is fired at high pressure. The blaster removes all those unwanted pieces of casting flash, while the drum keeps the components in constant movement, to ensure that every surface receives adequate treatment.
Hand blasting
Just like shot blasting and tumble blasting, hand blasting is another way to remove imperfections from metal surfaces by abrading them with fine particles ejected at speed. In this process, the device is hand held and operated by one of our staff.
Ideal for larger pieces, the device is mobile and the operator can angle him- or herself to get into all the nooks and crannies.
Aqua-blasting
Aqua-blasting is another abrasive cleaning and polishing method that we use to prepare your substrate for plating and finishing. Much like tumble blasting, it involves loading your components into a container and firing an abrasive shot towards them at tremendous speed.
The difference is that, for aqua-blasting, the shot is suspended in water and fired out using a high-pressure jet. This abrasive slurry delivers a deeper, more thorough clean, rinsing off the substrate and leaving it primed for further treatment.
Ultrasonic cleaning
Ultrasonic cleaning uses sound waves as a method of removing contaminants from the surface of your substrate metal. The sound waves are operated underwater, so the whole thing needs to be immersed in a tank before the technique is applied.
Transducers on the outside of the tank causing the whole tank to vibrate, creating ultrasonic soundwaves throughout the liquid that oscillate at an incredibly high frequency.
This oscillation effect acts like thousands of miniature scrubbing brushes, capable of thoroughly cleaning even the most complicated components.
De-greasing
Our de-greasing process involves the use of organic solvents and a series of water rinses to rid any base metals of unwanted surface grease.
The metals are immersed in a solvent to loosen and dissolve the grease, before being rinsed off.
Depending on the extent of the grease deposits, multiple applications may need to be made, or we may even have to consider an acid wash to help things along.
a quality process
As with our metal finishes, all our cleaning and blasting processes comply fully with ISO 9001 standards for Quality and ISO 14001 standards for Environmental, guaranteeing you an immaculate finish, whatever you need them for.
