Brush Plating has been used in the aircraft finishing and repair industry for the past 30 years. Particular emphasis on the process came with the development of Low Hydrogen Embrittlement Cadmium (Cad LHE) for touch up of cadmium coatings on aircraft. The addition of a conversion coating Cad Coat further enhanced its use.
For a long period of time the brush plating process showed no new or innovative technology or applications. With the increased concern over hazardous waste generation, new technologies and materials have been developed and are now available.
This paper covers brush plating breakthrough technologies such as permanent anode tooling, single anode metallizing, hazardous waste segregation carts, a brush plating solution recycling program that is in operation, anode moving wrap technology, trivalent hard chrome and nickel zinc brush plating solutions.
These technologies have changed the range of brush plating applications even to the point of allowing for the automation of the brush plating process in production applications using computers.
Computer Assisted Plating (CAP) technology.