Did you know, SIFCO’s solution manufacturing occurs in Cleveland, Ohio? This means with the winter months upon us, freezing temperatures and hazardous road conditions can cause frozen or delayed shipments. Now is the time to start thinking about stocking up on the solutions that you may need throughout the winter.
While preparatory solutions are not affected by extreme cold temperatures; plating solutions, when exposed to freezing temperatures – in storage or in transit – may freeze completely or “salt out” by forming slush or solid crystals at the bottom of the container.
This slush can usually be re-dissolved with vigorous shaking once the solution has been returned to room temperature. In some instances, heating the solution may help, although the maximum operating temperature should not be exceeded. If the salts do not re-dissolve, the solution is not usable.
If your solutions are not listed in the guide, and you are unsure about it’s usability, contact our Technical Service at 800-765-4131.
SAE International (SAE) is an association and standards developing organization for engineering professionals in various industries. SAE has more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the aerospace, automotive and commercial-vehicle sectors. It is their mission to “advance mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity.”
In 1998, SAE wrote the AMS 2451 standard for the general requirements of brush plating. As Mil-Std 865 is now inactive for new designs, AMS 2451C – revised in 2011 – serves as its replacement. While similar to AMS 2451C, Mil-Std-865 was more specific. Mil-Std-865 covers the process and materials for the brush plating of various metals and alloys on ferrous alloys, aluminum alloys, copper alloys, nickel alloys and corrosion-resistant steel, etc. But an advantage to the new AMS 2451C standard is within the specification some of the most used and accepted tank standards – such as AMS 2403, 2423, 2424, Mil-Std QQ-P-416 & Mil-Std QQ-S-365 – are listed and referenced. Technicians now have the opportunity to perform brush plating to several of the well-known AMS and Mil-Std tank specifications.
Brush plating is a portable surface finishing method used to enhance, repair, and refurbish localized areas on manufactured components. The SIFCO Process® is the leading portable method of brush plating localized areas without the use of an immersion tank. It is primarily used for enhancing surfaces on OEM components, permanent repairs and salvaging worn or mis-machined parts.
Do you have a valid AMS 2451C application?
If you can answer yes to the following questions, brush plating may be an option for you:
Have you plated to AMS 2403, 2423, 2424, Mil-Std 865, Mil-Std QQ-P-416 or Mil-Std QQ-S-365 in the past?
Do you have a selective or localized area that needs plating?
Is there a time/cost/quality issue specific to your application?
AMS 2451C has 14 slash number for individual deposits covering nickel, cadmium, copper, silver, zinc-nickel, tin-zinc, cobalt, tin, and nickel tungsten. While it is significant that brush plating has gained formal recognition by SAE, it remains very generic in regard to the application of the process. To see the full list of AMS 2451C deposits and their associated slash numbers, click here
If you have a need for brush plating to AMS 2451C, or any of the common tank methods mentioned above, contact SIFCO ASC at info@sifcoasc.com, or 800-765-4131.
The following article, written by Senior Training Manager Scott Peterson, originally appeared on PFonline.com.
Selective brush plating is much more than just a touch-up repair process. Hundreds of applications are using the selective brush plating process to provide surface enhancement coatings to aircraft OEM applications.
For decades, selective plating provided the needed technology that aerospace and aircraft personnel required to maintain their aircraft. Selective brush plating’s success started as a touch-up repair process for restoring metal on components that have become damaged or corroded. This was reinforced by its inclusion as an approved method of aircraft maintenance in the Federal Aviation Administration’s Advisory Circular 43.13-1A and by most major airlines around the world in their overhaul manuals or standard practices.
In addition, the British Defense Ministry, U.S. Air Force and other military organizations around the world recognize its importance and value to maintaining their fleets.
Selective brush plating is capable of depositing metallic coatings that are metallurgically sound with excellent adhesion and good mechanical properties. Deposits such as cadmium, zinc-nickel, tin-zinc, nickel, cobalt, copper, tin, zinc and silver —as well as anodizing Types I, II, III, phosphoric, and boric-sulfuric—can be precisely applied.
Common Uses
The process is known to be portable, fast, easy to use, reliable, environmentally friendly and requiring minimal masking. It is used in many aircraft OEM applications including landing gear, engines, instruments and accessories, hydraulics and avionics. These applications require adding metal to existing surfaces for a variety of reasons. Five of the most common uses are:
Enhancing corrosion protection
Improving braze characteristics with a flash of nickel
Improving surface properties
Restoration of tolerance conditions
Repairing aluminum components
The Process
Brush plating is a contact method of electroplating in which metals are deposited onto localized areas using an absorbent pad-wrapped anode saturated with a proprietary plating solution (selective anodizing can be accomplished using a similar technique). Brush techniques are suitable for simple geometric shapes such as outer diameters, interior diameters and flat surfaces.
The basic items needed are a portable rectifier (power pack), plating tools, masking materials and solutions. For electroplating, the part becomes the cathode and is connected to the negative terminal of the power pack. The positive terminal is connected to a “tool” handle, and an anode that is wrapped with an absorbent material that provides insulation and wear resistance as the tool moves over the part. The appropriate solution — which can be fed with a pump — completes the electrical circuit. The deposition rates can be about 0.035 inches/hour, which means quick plating of the part.
Base material specific procedures have been developed to ensure excellent adhesion of the deposit onto all of the commonly used metals, but identifying the substrate is crucial as the appropriate preparatory procedure is determined by both the substrate and the plating solution selected. Mild steel, high alloy steels, cast iron, copper, nickel, aluminum, and stainless steels all require different preparatory treatments.
The surface is prepared only where the plating is required. Masking fixtures can be used for repetitive or high-volume applications. The area to be masked must be cleaned to ensure that masking materials will adhere. Grease and soil are removed with a solvent; steel wool, emery paper, wire brushing, or sand blasting is used to remove scale, rust or tarnish. The parts are then ready for electrocleaning, etching, desmutting, and/or activation in accordance with supplier procedures.
The variety of available selective plated deposits provides alternatives for excellent corrosion protection and hardness and wear resistance depending upon the deposit plated. In most cases the deposits meet or exceed all the performance requirements of federal, military and commercial specifications for tank plating. There are also comparable standards written specifically for brush plating.
In addition, work continues on advancing the selective brush plating process by developing and improving deposits and the process itself through advancements in plating onto titanium and the development of a cobalt chromium carbide metal matrix deposit used in high temperature applications.
It was 31 years ago on September 8, 1986, that Britain’s Prime Minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, and Nissan’s president opened Nissan Motor Manufacturing in Sunderland, England. While previously importing Nissan into the UK, the opening of the manufacturing plant provided hope for hundreds of employees exposed to the downturn of the industrial economy. Proving to be a success, Nissan continued to expand its services in the Body Assembly, Paint, and Final Assembly lines.
In the Press Shop molds are used to press the inner and outer bodies of the vehicle into shape. One press tool is made from FC 25 Grey Cast Iron. Usually when damaged, it was repaired using a MH1 welding electrode. But in a recent instance, the damage to a leading edge of the press tool was no deeper than 15 microns. By welding or using an inlay, the mold would then need to be machined back to size, increasing the risk for errors in the mold.
The SIFCO plating process is a portable method to selectively electroplate onto localized areas. Mechanical damage ranging from pitting to deep impressions can be permanently repaired by selectively plating, using the SIFCO Process®.
Nissan Motor Manufacturing, contacted SIFCO ASC to inquire if selective plating could be used to repair the defective area, without the need for post machining. By using the SIFCO Process®, a technician was able to provide a localized repair to the damaged area by applying a thin layer of nickel-cobalt, which was polished after plating to match the texture of the press tool surface and provide proper release and wetting characteristics. The images below demonstrate the in-situ repair.
Selective Anodizing can also be used in many touch-up applications on aluminum and its alloys; resulting in improved wear resistance, corrosion protection, and improved adhesive properties for subsequent painting or adhesive bonding repair.
Happy Anniversary Nissan Sunderland! Thank you for including SIFCO ASC on your journey.
To learn more about selective plating, and to determine if it’s the right repair process for your needs, contact us at 800-765-4131.
This week in history, the World’s Fair opened in San Francisco, California. While many new inventions were unveiled throughout the coming weeks, one of the main attractions was the airplane. Even more than 10 years after the first flight by the Wright Brothers, many Americans had not seen an airplane until coming to the fair, much less having the opportunity to fly in one. And many exhibitionists attended the fair with their planes in tow to draw in the crowds.
For example, fairgoers gathered to see Lorraine Collett the Sun-Maid Raisin Girl, shower the crowd with raisins from her plane every day. While Allan and Malcolm Loughead, of the Lockheed aviation company, offered adventurous fairgoers a 10-minute flight over San Francisco Bay in their hydroplane. Even more daring was Lincoln Beachey who performed loops and spirals in his biplane until his unfortunate death on March 14, 1915. And Art Smith, who performed at night with phosphorous flares attached to his plane’s wings(1).
Even though these professionals performed many new, and never-before-seen feats, the danger they were exposed to increased, every time they took flight. At this time, retractable landing gear needing critical corrosion protection was not invented; and even important, standard repairs had not been established. While the Wright Brothers developed landing wheels when doing work for the US Army in 1910, many airplanes still used wooden or metal landing skids to glide back onto the ground or sand(2).
The advancements and regulations put in place today, continually encourage OEMs and MROs to improve designs in safety, efficiency, and environmental impact.
Learn more about the top draws to the World’s Fair at History website.
When it comes to processes for surface finishing, one many technicians default to using is thermal spray or plasma metallizing. While this method has become synonymous with tough exterior coatings and the resizing of internal and external diameters, technicians may not realize that a better surface finishing technique may be available. Take a look at the advantages that selective or brush plating has over thermal spray.
170 years ago, in 1847 Richard March Hoe patented, and put into commercial use, the rotary printing press he invented 4 years prior. A rotary printing press uses a rotating drum; and text and images are curved around the cylinder when printed. To this day, keeping the surface of the cylinder in faultless condition, is of the utmost importance.
Mechanical damage ranging from pitting and minor dings and scratches to deep impressions on the cylinder can occur frequently, resulting in errors in printing or complete inoperability of the press. Using brush plating, damage can be repaired permanently, saving time and money. Defects are typically filled with one or more layers of copper, each usually 0.015” thick, and then covered with a hard, wear resistant deposit that has good release or wetting characteristics.
Brush plated deposits are quickly and uniformly applied to damaged areas of cylinders in-place, at scheduled down times, so that the production schedule is not affected.
The photos shows the stages of an in-place repair to correct the damage caused by a dropped allen wrench. Repairs such as this are easily carried out on rolls made of carbon or stainless steel that have been plated with chrome or nickel. This repair was carried out during a normal shut down period with no lost production time.
The sharp edges of the depression were carefully removed with a small high-speed grinder to provide a smooth, gradual transition from the base of the defect to the outer roll surface. Three layers of copper were applied, then dressed a couple of thousandths below the roll surface. Finally, a thin layer of nickel-cobalt was applied to a slightly larger area and then feathered and polished to match the texture of the roll surface.
For more information on brush plating applications in the pulp and paper industry, click here.
Components face tremendous and sometimes constant stressors in off-highway vehicles. From the growing size of the equipment to the unpredictable field conditions, it’s no wonder large components experience wear on hydraulic systems, transmissions, and final drives.
Frequently the size and location of the areas needing repair prohibit engineers from using traditional methods such as welding, sleeving or thermal spray – all of which require machining and are difficult to accomplish in-situ. But what if there was another way? Selective plating is used to apply adherent, high- quality deposits onto localized areas and to achieve precise deposit thicknesses.
Unlike thermal spray, which is a mechanical bond, selective plating is an atomic bond that is not compromised by severe, cyclical temperature fluctuations or by sharp, direct impact. Also, deposit thicknesses are accurately controlled allowing parts to be plated to size, without the need for post-machining. What’s more, is selective plating is carried out at room temperature, and unlike thermal spray or welding, doesn’t pose any risk of distorting the part or component. And the prized feature of the process is that it’s portable. Selective plating can be performed in the shop, or on the job site. Whereas, thermal spray is typically limited to a shop with ventilation features for operator safety.
In the following example, we show what selective plating in the mining industry could look like.
The bearing bores on a cast iron, differential housing component on an off-highway vehicle were out of round. While initially thermal spray was considered to repair the bores, several issues arose. Not only would the build-up needed on each bore be time consuming, but due to the critical alignment during assembly with the differential housing gear, the risk for mis-machining the component was too high.
The solution for a wear resistant finish with no risk for misalignment was selective plating. Each bore was first built up with Copper 2050 and capped with Nickel 5644, for a final build-up of 280mm. The circumference of the inner diameter was maintained using a self-made expander plate with an abrasive pad. The unique aspect about this repair was that the plating was carried out with the clamps fully torqued.
By using the SIFCO Process® of selective plating, this major aftermarket mining company was not only able to plate the bore to size without post machining, but they were also able to return the vehicle to service with minimal downtime compared to the alternative repair methods.
The SIFCO Process® can be used in other areas of the mining industry including:
Pumps
Valves
Propulsion Components
Electrical Components
Structural Components
Hydraulics
For more information on the SIFCO Process®, contact info@sifcoasc.com or call us at 800-765-4131.
While most brush plating solutions produce high quality deposits when plated in the plating temperature range of 60 °F to 120 °F, a few solutions must be plated within a tighter temperature range or at higher temperatures to provide the desired thickness, quality, and deposit characteristics (e.g., alloy composition).
In addition to having the solution (bath) within the proper plating temperature range throughout the operation, getting to and maintaining the correct temperature in the work area is also important. The work area is the thin film of solution on the work piece where plating is taking place. There are four factors that influence the temperature in the work area:
Temperature of the part.
Temperature of the solution being used.
Heat developed in the work area during plating.
Amount and exchange of solution being supplied to the work area.
Temperature of the part is a concern when plating large parts which can quickly chill a preheated solution. In these cases, temperature is largely controlled by heating the part to the proper temperature prior to plating.
Alternately, temperature of the solution becomes a concern when plating thin or smaller parts that can be rapidly heated by a warmed solution.
When using solutions plated at higher voltages (over approximately 12 volts), plating at high currents, or plating higher thicknesses of deposit, the heating effect from the passing current is a factor. The amount of heat developed, while plating, is proportional to the voltage used, multiplied by the current passed:
Heat = Volts x Amps
The developed heat is typically sufficient to quickly heat the work area, tool and solution. But, in some cases, heat from plating can result in excessive temperatures in the work area, causing the tool to overheat. This is characterized by:
The plating tool, part and solution becoming noticeably hot.
The current diminishing as plating continues.
Raised voltage leading to decreased amperages.
Using a larger pump.
Increasing the size or number of solution distribution holes in the anode.
Decreasing the thickness of the cover.
Starting with more solution.
How fast and how much solution is supplied to the work area is the last factor. Rapid supply of solution to the work area tends to keep the work area closer to the temperature of the solution being used. Less rapid supply allows the work area to be heated more rapidly. An example of how rate of solution supply can be manipulated is the case where the heat generated from plating is relied on to heat the work area. This technique is used with solutions that plate better at high temperatures, but which are not preheated. When starting out, low rates of solution supply are used. This helps keep the heat developed in the work area. This permits the voltage and amperage to be raised sooner without a burned deposit resulting. This in turn develops more heat. The net result is that the proper elevated temperature is reached sooner. The solution supply then is increased to prevent the work area from overheating.
Diligently monitoring the factors that influence the plating temperature of the work area will produce a quality, deposit without issue. If you have questions or concerns about maintaining the proper temperature of your work area, contact our Technical Service Department at 800-465-4131 or info@sifcoasc.com.
Selective plating is a well-established and reliable process which has already been written into multiple aerospace specifications. It not only exceeds the fundamental requirements of aircraft manufacturing, repair and maintenance processes, it also provides a full circle of benefits, including quality, durability, cost saving, portability and time saving.
But by automating the selective plating process operators can review captured data to determine if the operation was completed correctly. If any errors occurred, or quality standards weren’t met, operators can review the data and trace the error to its source and assign the appropriate corrective action, preventing the errors from being repeated – effectively improving traceability and repeatability within the process. Additionally, automation reduces the ergonomic risk to the operator, and also increases the available capacity by allowing skilled operators to focus on the core business processes.
These benefits can clearly be seen in the aerospace industry with SIFCO ASC’s recent, and highly regarded, work with leading manufacturers of aircraft engine and landing gear components in the UK and USA.
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