Beyond Reliable Rack Plating Services

An Overview of Our Rack Plating Offerings

Rack plating is essential for finishing larger, higher-repeatability components that cannot be coated using other batch plating methods. The process includes wiring parts onto plating racks and submerging them in the plating solution under current, resulting in a durable, high-quality final product.

Some examples of the parts that are well-suited for our rack plating technique include:

• Hermetic packages and connector pins
• Complex machined aluminum components
• Parts requiring masked or selective plating zones
• RF connectors, RF housings, and coaxial contacts
• High-value, low-volume components (where the risk of part damage must be minimized)

The Benefits of Rack Plating

There are numerous advantages to using General Metal Finishing’s rack plating services, including:

• No part-to-part contact – Removing part contact protects critical surfaces and ensures cosmetic integrity
• Precise thickness control – This is essential for controlled gold, silver, or nickel thickness in connectors
• Ideal for tight-tolerance electronic components – These components include RF parts, high-frequency connectors, and PCB hardware
• Supports selective and masked plating – Selective and masked plating is critical for gold-over-nickel contact areas
• Handles complex geometries – Rack plating can handle recesses, shoulders, and precision-machined features
• Reduced mechanical damage risk – This is important for thin or delicate substrates

Limitations with the Rack Plating Process

When selecting which plating service is best for you, it’s important to understand the possible limitations of rack plating, which include:

• Higher per-piece cost – The increased price per part can equate to a higher price for labor and fixturing
• Lower throughput for small bulk parts – The approach tends to be less economical for commodity hardware
• Custom fixturing often required – Rack plating adds engineering time and cost, with a higher capital cost for specialized racking systems

Why Customers Choose General Metal Finishing

The team at General Metal Finishing is dedicated to providing exceptional plating services, using advanced equipment and techniques to achieve effective results. This includes eight X-ray fluorescence units, a salt spray chamber, solderability testing, ICP analysis, and a microhardness tester.

Additionally, our processes are backed by various certifications and standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 13485, and NADCAP. So, when working with us, you can trust that our techniques and products will be backed by the most stringent standards, ensuring the highest quality products for your business.

Industries We Serve

Just some of the sectors that we provide rack plating services to include:

• Aerospace and defense
• Electronics
• General industrial
• Medical
• And more