• Metal Parts

How to improve the plating performance of PC / ABS?

How to improve the plating performance of PC / ABS?

Electroplated PC / ABS products are widely used in the automobile, home appliances and it industries because of their beautiful metal appearance. Material formulation design and electroplating process are generally considered to be the main factors affecting the electroplating performance of PC / ABS. However, few people pay attention to the influence of injection molding process on the electroplating performance.

Injection temperature

Under the condition that the material will not crack, higher injection temperature can get better plating performance. Relevant research shows that compared with the products with injection temperature of 230 ℃, when the temperature is increased to 260 ℃ – 270 ℃, the adhesion of the coating is increased by about 50%, and the surface appearance defect rate is greatly reduced.

Injection speed and pressure

Lower injection pressure and proper injection speed are beneficial to improve the electroplating performance of PC / ABS.

Pressure maintaining pressure and pressure maintaining switching point

Too high holding pressure and late switching position of holding pressure easily lead to over filling of products, stress concentration at gate position and high residual stress in products. Therefore, the pressure maintaining pressure and pressure maintaining switching point should be set in combination with the actual product filling state.

Mold temperature

High mold temperature is beneficial to improve the electroplating performance of the material. At high mold temperature, the material has good fluidity, is conducive to filling, the molecular chain is in natural curl state, the internal stress of the product is small, and the plating performance is greatly improved.

Screw speed

The lower screw speed is beneficial to improve the plating performance of the material. Generally speaking, on the premise of ensuring material melting, the screw speed can be set to make the metering time slightly shorter than the cooling time.

Summary:

The injection temperature, injection speed and pressure, mold temperature, holding pressure and screw speed in the injection molding process will have an impact on the plating performance of PC / ABS.

The most direct adverse effect is the excessive internal stress of the product, which will affect the uniformity of etching in the coarsening stage of electroplating, and then affect the plating bonding force of the final product.

In short, the plating performance of PC / ABS material can be significantly improved by setting appropriate injection molding process and trying to reduce the internal stress of the material in combination with the product structure, mold state and the state of the molding machine.


Post time: Aug-19-2022