Metal Finishing & Plating

On the heat-up time you want from cold, plus the steady loss from the open surface, ventilation and parts going in. Heat-up usually governs, so a line that wants the bath ready an hour after start needs far more surface than one allowed to warm overnight. Give us the bath volume, solution type, start and operating temperatures, and how quickly the tank must come up.

Along a side wall or end, clear of the work zone and anode bars, with space behind for solution to circulate. Panels jammed against the wall or buried in sludge loose much of their rating. Agitation or air sparging past the surface helps a great deal, so tell us whether the tank has it when we size the assembly.

Most do, because the anodizing current dumps a steady load of heat into the bath and hard coat lines run cold. A Temp-Plate immersion assembly on chilled glycol is a common arrangement. The rectifier rating and duty cycle give the heat load closely, so send those along with the target bath temperature.

Flat or gently curved steel walls that can take welded lugs on the outside, with enough clear area between stiffeners to mount a useful panel. Lined or plastic tanks are a poor fit, since heat has to pass through the liner. Output depends on tight contact with the shell, so a conductive mastic between panel and wall is normally part of the installation.

Some plating chemistries break down or drop additives if the heater wall runs much hotter than the bath. Hot spots also bake deposits onto the panel, which cuts output and is hard to remove. Running steam or hot water at a moderate temperature and controlling it closely keeps the panel surface near bath temperature and protects the chemistry.

Behind a plate exchanger on tower water, so the closed loop running through torches, transformers and coils stays clean and treated. Those passages are small, and one slug of tower scale can starve an induction coil. Keep the closed side on deionized or inhibited water as the equipment requires, and size the plate pack for the hottest summer tower temperature.