There are two common plating processes for plastic products: water plating and vacuum ion plating.
Vacuum ion plating is also known as vacuum coating. Vacuum plating is now a popular method, which produces products with a strong metallic feel and high brightness. The cost is low compared to other coating methods. And Low pollution to the environment.
It is now widely used in various industries because of its lower cost and less environmental pollution.
Vacuum plating is suitable for a wide range of products, such as ABS, ABS + PC, and PC materials.
It is more expensive than water plating due to its complex process, high environmental and equipment requirements.
The process is briefly described as follows: product surface cleaning–> de-staticizing–> spraying primer–> baking primer–>
Baking primer–> Vacuum coating–> Spraying top coat–> Baking top coat–> Packaging.
The general practice of vacuum plating is to spray a layer of paint on the material before doing the plating. As the material is plastic, air bubbles and organic gases will be left behind during injection and moisture will be drawn into the air when it is placed.
Because the surface of the parts is not smooth, the luster is low, and bubbles|blisters can appear, the metallic feel will be poor if plating directly. Spraying a layer of paint before plating will eliminate these defects and show a high smooth and glossy finishing.
Vacuum plating includes general vacuum plating, UV vacuum plating, special vacuum plating special.
The processes are vapor plating, sputter plating, gunmetal plating, etc.
Water plating is a simpler process and does not require as much equipment or environment as vacuum ion plating.
It is widely used because of the simplicity of the process. However, water plating has a weakness, as it can only be applied to ABS, ABS+PC, and nylon materials now.
Perhaps a wider range of plastic materials will be invented for water plating in the future.
