Engineered Solutions

Engineered Solutions

Since 1948 Advanced Plating Technologies has been providing engineered solutions in surface finishing across a range of demanding industries.  Our experience within these sectors has resulted in a metal finishing skill set that is unique among metal finishing job shops today.  These “Engineered Solutions” are summarized below along with links to pages where you can learn more about our capabilities within these areas.

APT is much more than just a metal finishing job shop; we are a surface engineering resource for your company.  Our certified surface finishing engineers can assist with design or reverse engineering support on applications including corrosion resistance, contact cycle life, solderability, wire bonding, ultrasonic welding, brazing, lubricity and wear resistance.  Many of these topics are covered within our technical blogs or you can always ask an engineer any question, anytime.


Coatings for Electric Vehicle Components

Nickel Plated Terminal for Electric Vehicle

Terminal for Electric Vehicle

The EV market is our fastest growing sector within our core metal finishing services including barrel and rack loose-piece plating in silver, nickel, electroless nickel, tin and tin/lead. APT offers a family of silver, nickel and electroless nickel plating optimized for ultrasonic welding of terminals, bus bars and connectors.  The deposit thickness, purity and underplates are aligned to maximize adhesion and cleanliness to ensure reliable welds that will meet demanding pull force test requirements.


Plating on Aluminum

Plating on Aluminum

Plating on Aluminum

Aluminum is one of the fastest growing design materials used today due excellent strength to weight, conductivity and cost advantages of this light metal.  However, aluminum has several shortcomings including hardness and wear resistance, galling tendencies and the fact that it is an amphoteric metal – one that will corrode in both alkaline and acidic environments.  These “material shortcomings” can be addressed with proper selection and application of metal finishing technologies.  Advanced Plating Technologies offers a proprietary pre-treatment process tailored to the specific aluminum alloy grade.  This APT-AL™ pretreatment process ensuresrock-solid adhesion on any grade of aluminum, cast or wrought.  In addition, APT’s full diversity of electrolytic or electroless finish offerings can be applied to aluminum to meet the design needs of most applications.


Plate-to-Gauge or Plate-to-Dimension Services

Plate to Gauge

Plate to Gauge

Plating to gauge or dimension is a specialized skill-set of metal finishing in which parts are plated to a final part dimension rather than simply a targeted deposit thickness.  It requires a focus on comparing as-received dimensions to targeted dimensions and a high level of process control and in-situ quality inspections.  Equipped with an in-house engineering group, Advanced Plating Technologies welcomes plate-to-gauge or plate-to-dimension applications where most shops will no-quote. The process engineers at APT are able to manage the entire process from design review, quoting, deposit modeling, tooling design, in-house tooling fabrication to final process validation and approval.


Selective Plating Services (Electroless & Electroplating)

Selective Plating Services

Selective Plating Services

Selective plating is a subset of metal finishing in which masking and/or selective deposition is employed to avoid deposition on certain part features.   The engineering group at APT has extensive experience in the proper design, selection and application of selective plating techniques to meet the needs of even the most demanding applications.  In fact, APT has processed parts with over 120 masks on just a single part. From the simplest stock mask application to the most exotic custom-molded mask design, Advanced Plating Technologies can engineer a selective plating process specific to your application. 


Heavy Build Plating

Heavy Build

Heavy Build

Heavy build plating is commonly defined as deposits heavier than 0.001 inches per side.  Heavy build plating is a specific plating practice that is specified in applications where severe corrosion, erosion or wear properties of the deposit is required.  Industries such as the ammunition, defense, Oil & Gas, Petrochemical and bearing markets commonly use heavy build plating to meet design requirements.  APT has successfully plated deposits exceeding 0.025 inches per side and can provide both barrel and rack heavy build plating in a range of deposits including silver, copper, electroless nickel, lead, tin/lead, tin and gold.  From a plating perspective, significant challenges are encountered in heavy build plating including maintaining deposit integrity, surface finish, thickness distribution and proper measurement techniques.  APT can work with your group to engineer a solution specific to your heavy build application.


Bearing Plating Services

Bearing Plating

Advanced Plating Technologies provides bearing plating services across a diverse range of industrial sectors.   APT offers a range of bearing plating services including heavy build and selective plating of a range of finishes for lubricity and Babbitt properties including silver, lead, tin/lead, copper and tin.  The technical sales group welcomes the opportunity to review specific bearing plating applications to ensure that the specific surface finish requirements, dimensional inspections and selective plating needs are met.


Medical Device Coatings

Medical Device Coatings

Medical Device Coatings

Advanced Plating Technologies provides medical device coatings to the demanding requirements of ISO 13485 for both OEMs and contract manufacturers. Common applications include gold plating, medical-grade passivation, tin, electroless nickel and powder coating. APT can provide full validations as required to include Installation Qualification, Operation Qualification and Performance Qualification to ensure specification regulatory compliance and consistency in processing.  APT specializes in plating on both micro components and inert substrates often encountered within the medical contract manufacturing space.


Contact Advanced Plating Technologies to learn more about our Engineered Solutions for the most effective treatment of your application. You can also request a quote and a Certified Electroplating Engineer will be in touch with you shortly.