The UK electrical and electronics industry has been growing significantly in recent years, following a long period of decline. With the sector growing by more than 20% in the last four years, its annual turnover now stands at around £20 billion. Key to this success is the quality of electronic items being produced by the industry. Much of that quality can be traced to the high standard of electroplating applied to the individual components.
Electroplating in the electrical and electronic sector
Nearly every single electronic involves the use of several plating techniques. The central concerns are precision and uniformity of the metal deposits. Here at Karas Plating, we utilise an extensive range of plating procedures to produce electronic components that are second to none.
Why is electroplating so essential to the electrical and electronic industry? Here are some of the key reasons:
Connectors, contacts, conductors, and circuits
These are all important parts of any electrical circuit and every single one of them requires some sort of plating, if they are to work effectively. Regardless of the purpose to which they will be set, these components demand both durability and conductivity.
At Karas Plating we meet these demands through our gold-plating process. Gold is a valuable and much-prized metal. However, it has more than mere monetary value – it is an excellent material for the plating of circuit components. It is resistant to corrosion, offers low and stable levels of contact resistance, and is an efficient conductor of electricity.
The only down-side to gold-plating is that it can be somewhat fragile. In its unadulterated form, gold can even be marked by hand. To remedy this, and to make the circuitry more durable, we can add a primer layer of nickel onto the components. Not only does this produce a firm bond with the subsequent layer of gold, it makes its more durable, leading to longer lasting electronic devices.
Heat resistance
Some electronic components generate tremendous amounts of heat, or are housed in apparatus that does so. To allow for their continued operation, the components need to be plated with a metal that can withstand high temperatures or powerful currents. Sadly, gold is not always up to this task. However, there is a suitable solution: silver. We use 99.9% pure silver to plate any components that are likely to experience high charges of electricity or heat. This is a higher purity than the silver you’re likely to find in jewellery and even decorative plating. Like with our gold-plating process, we can also incorporate a primary layer of nickel for greater durability.
Other sectors we cover
The automotive industry uses plated components to make their vehicles more efficient at every stage of their manufacture. From gold-plated micro-components in the ECU, to nickel-plated, corrosion-resistant parts, all the way to metal-plated plastic parts to create lightweight bodywork.
Whether we’re talking about the National Grid, criss-crossing the country providing the nation with its electricity, or more renewable sources of power generation like wind turbines and solar panels, electroplating is essential to the power industry. Components undergo great pressure on a day-to-day basis and must be robust enough to withstand the strain.
The petrochemical industry produces essential items that we use everyday, from plastics, petroleum, and detergents to lubricants, asphalt, propane, and more. Raw materials are subjected to extreme heat and pressure throughout the refining process, so the machinery used to do so requires durable and reliable plating to get the job done.