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Ultrasonic surface processing utilises the cold plasticity characteristics of metals at room temperature, employing ultrasound to carry out grinding, strengthening and minor deformation treatment on metal parts surfaces without the use of abrasives, enabling the surface of metal parts to achieve a more ideal surface roughness. It can also be vividly described as using ultrasound to smooth the surface of parts; at the same time, it generates compressive stress on the surface, improving the microhardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of the part surface, thereby extending fatigue life.
Purpose Increase hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance, and prolong lifespan
Increase hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance, and prolong lifespan
Hardware electroplating is a surface treatment process that deposits a dense metal coating on the surface of metal hardware workpieces based on electrochemical principles. It is widely applied to stamped parts, die-cast hardware, fasteners, mold accessories, door & window hardware, bathroom hardware and other metal products. Electroplating delivers multiple benefits simultaneously including rust and corrosion resistance, improved wear resistance and surface hardness, decorative brightening, electrical conductivity or insulation enhancement, and stronger coating adhesion. It serves as a core finishing procedure that extends the service life and elevates the surface texture of hardware products.
The hardware workpiece to be processed acts as the cathode, while the raw material of the coating metal serves as the anode. Both are immersed in specialized electroplating electrolyte. After direct current is applied, metal ions inside the electrolyte migrate evenly under the electric field and deposit onto the hardware surface, forming a firmly bonded, thickness-controllable thin metal film that fully covers the inner and outer surfaces of the workpiece.Unlike spray coating and electrophoretic coating, electroplated coatings form a metallurgical bond with the substrate, resisting peeling and flaking, and delivering far stronger adhesion than paint-based surface treatments.
Pre-treatment (Critical to Electroplating Quality)
Degreasing & Oil Removal: Eliminate stamping oil, anti-rust grease, fingerprint contaminants on hardware surfaces to prevent pinholes and blisters in the coating.
Pickling & Descaling: Remove oxide scales, rust spots and blackened layers to activate the metal substrate.
Sanding & Polishing / Barrel Polishing: Rough polishing removes burrs and scratches; fine polishing optimizes substrate smoothness for a superior mirror finish after electroplating.
Multi-stage Water Rinsing: Pure water rinsing between each procedure to avoid cross-contamination of chemical solutions and defective products.
Core Electroplating Stage Select the corresponding plating solution according to product requirements, and precisely control current, temperature and plating time to accurately regulate coating thickness. Barrel plating is adopted for small bulk hardware such as screws, nuts and springs; rack plating is used for large-sized or precision appearance parts including bathroom handles, decorative hardware and furniture hardware.
Recovery Rinsing: Recycle electroplating solution for environmental protection and cost savings.
Passivation & Sealing: Zinc-plated and nickel-plated workpieces undergo passivation to produce blue-white zinc, colored zinc or black zinc finishes, drastically boosting corrosion resistance; copper-plated and chromium-plated parts are sealed to resist oxidation.
Drying, Inspection & Sorting: High-temperature drying eliminates water stains; inspect for color difference, coating peeling, salt spray performance and dimensional tolerances.
Electroplating Coatings & Application Scenarios (Core Product Introduction for Hardware Factory Official Website)Zinc Plating (Most Universal Anti-Corrosion Plating)Advantages: Low cost and outstanding rust resistance; passivated coatings can withstand salt spray testing for dozens to hundreds of hours.Finishes: Blue-white zinc, colored zinc, black zinc, black passivation.Applications: Screws, bolts, stamped brackets, furniture hardware, construction fasteners, small automotive chassis hardware.Nickel Plating (Undercoating + Dual-Purpose Decorative & Wear-Resistant Finish)Classified into semi-bright nickel, bright nickel and matte nickel. The coating features fine, even texture, high hardness and excellent wear resistance. It is commonly used as an intermediate underlayer for chromium plating and gold plating to isolate substrate oxidation.Applications: Bathroom hardware, electronic spring plates, mold accessories, luggage hardware, precision instrument components.Chromium Plating (High-Gloss Decoration & Ultra-High Hardness Wear Resistance)Bright chromium delivers mirror-like gloss, smooth touch, extreme hardness and strong scratch resistance. Hard chromium can significantly extend the wear service life of workpieces.Applications: Door & window handles, bathroom faucet fittings, decorative furniture hardware, mechanical shafts, wear-resistant mold surfaces.
Divided into cyanide copper and acid copper plating. It fills minor scratches on workpieces and improves adhesion of subsequent coatings, and is rarely used as a standalone top finish.Matching Processes: Serves as an underlayer prior to nickel plating, chromium plating or gold plating.Gold / Silver Plating (High-End Conductive & Decorative Coatings)Exceptional electrical conductivity and oxidation resistance. Mainly used for electronic connectors, precision conductive hardware and high-end decorative hardware.Alloy Electroplating (Zinc-Nickel, Nickel-Cobalt, etc.)Superior anti-corrosion performance with far better salt spray resistance than standard zinc plating, suitable for outdoor, marine and automotive hardware requiring high corrosion protection.
Long-Lasting Rust & Corrosion Resistance
The coating isolates air, moisture, acids and alkalis to prevent oxidation and rust of iron, steel and zinc alloy substrates, multiplying the service life of products used outdoors or in humid environments.
Enhanced Aesthetics & Product Grade
It achieves matte, mirror, colored, black and other surface textures, eliminating dullness, scratches and blackening of raw hardware blanks, and greatly raising the premium of decorative hardware.
Improved Physical Properties
Chromium plating and hard nickel increase surface hardness for wear and scratch resistance; gold and silver plating optimize electrical conductivity; certain coatings reduce friction coefficients.
Remedy Minor Surface Defects
Thin coatings fill slight scratches and pinholes on workpieces to improve surface flatness.
Controllable Dimensions & Stable Processing
Coating thickness can be controlled at the micron level, ensuring high consistency in mass production and compatibility with standardized hardware manufacturing.
Construction hardware, bathroom hardware, furniture hardware, door & window hardware, precision electronic hardware, automotive parts, fasteners (screws, springs), luggage & leather goods hardware, mechanical equipment accessories, die-cast zinc alloy / aluminum alloy / iron & steel hardware components.
One-stop hardware electroplating processing with full coverage of barrel plating and rack plating technologies, delivering uniform coatings with strong adhesion.
Rigorous pre-treatment plus standardized passivation and sealing procedures to meet salt spray standards, providing durable rust protection and anti-peeling performance.
Diverse coating processes available to satisfy anti-corrosion, wear-resistant and decorative requirements for all types of metal hardware.
Environmentally compliant electroplating production lines, fast mass delivery and stable, controllable product quality.
Electroplating forms a thin metal layer via metal ion deposition, featuring strong adhesion, superior wear resistance and corrosion resistance. Spray coating creates a paint film that is prone to scratching, with weaker anti-corrosion performance and shorter service life compared to electroplating.
This issue is mostly caused by incomplete removal of oil and rust on workpieces due to inadequate pre-treatment. Professional electroplating manufacturers adopt multi-stage degreasing and pickling processes to eliminate such defects.
Decorative hardware generally features a coating thickness of 5–20 micrometers. Hardware for outdoor high-corrosion environments uses thickened coatings combined with passivation treatment.
Industry Terminology Uniformity: Adopted internationally recognized hardware & electroplating technical terms (e.g., passivation ，salt spray，barrel plating，rack plating ) for factory official website scenarios.
Sentence Style: Adjusted Chinese long complex sentences into concise, logic-driven English technical paragraphs suitable for corporate introduction.
Noun Consistency: “Hardware” uniformly refers to hardware in industrial context without redundant modification; “workpiece” stands for.
Unit Translation: Retained micrometer as μm in technical description, consistent with international industry standards.
Molds are indispensable and crucial tools in industrial production, widely used in fields such as household appliances, automobiles, electronic devices, and medical equipment. The texture and patterns on
mold surfaces play a vital role in product quality and appearance. With the rise in consumer spending levels, traditional mold engraving methods have certain limitations and fail to meet the demands for fine texture and complexity in high-end products. The emergence of laser engraving technology for molds has introduced entirely new possibilities for mold surface treatment.
The laser produces a high-intensity, high-energy laser beam. These laser beams are typically generated by laser diodes, solid-state lasers, or gas lasers.
3.2 Laser Focusing
The laser beam passes through an optical system, such as a lens or mirror, and is focused into a very small laser spot. The focused energy density determines the depth and accuracy of the etching pattern.
3.3 Surface irradiation of molds
The focused laser beam is irradiated onto a specific position on the surface of the mold. The interaction between the laser beam and the mold surface causes the melting, evaporation, or peeling of the material, resulting in the formation of the desired patterns and textures.
3.4 Movement and Control
Molds are usually combined with CNC machine tools or laser etching machines to achieve etching of the mold surface by controlling the relative motion between the laser beam and the mold. These movements can be the rotation, translation, or tilting of the mold.
3.5 Coordination and Control
Through advanced computer control systems, the laser source, optical system, and mold motion are coordinated and controlled. This enables the laser etching process to be carried out with very high precision and repeatability.
Mold laser etching technology utilizes the high energy and precise control of the laser beam to achieve high-precision etching of the mold surface, thereby forming fine patterns and textures. This non-contact processing method has the advantages of high efficiency, high precision, and repeatability, and has gradually become an important technology in the field of mold processing [4].
4.1 Automotive Industry
Car mold is one of the important application areas of laser etching technology for molds, which is used for surface texture treatment of automotive interior parts, steering wheel, dashboard, door panels, seats and other components. By laser etching, various fine textures can be created, which can enhance the texture and aesthetics of car interior decoration, improve the appearance quality and comfort of the car. The laser etching effect on the mold is shown in Figure 2 [5].
4.2 Electronic Products
In high-end electronic products, mold laser etching technology is commonly used for pattern and texture processing on the shells of mobile phones, displays, projectors, tablets, and laptops. These patterns and textures not only enhance the visual appeal of the product, but also provide better hand feel and anti slip performance. The appearance texture of electronic products greatly enhances the user experience. Laser etching technology for molds can form delicate and uniform textures on electronic product casings, buttons, and displays, enhancing the appearance, texture, and quality of the product, and effectively enhancing its competitiveness among users’ numerous choices.
4.3 Medical Devices
The surface texture of medical devices has a significant impact on the hygiene and operability of products. Through mold laser etching technology, fine textures can be formed on the surface of medical device components during the manufacturing process, making it more comfortable for medical personnel to operate the medical device and easier to clean. At the same time, the delicate laser etching can effectively improve the antibacterial properties of the product.
4.4 Furniture and Supplies
The application of mold laser etching technology in household products is also receiving increasing attention. For example, texture treatment can be applied to the surfaces of furniture, lighting fixtures, and kitchen supplies to give them higher texture and artistic value. The laser etching effect on jewelry is shown in Figure 3.
Special coatings such as gold plating, silver plating, gunmetal plating and pearl nickel plating can be added for high-end products.
Applications: Home appliance decorative strips, bathroom plastic fittings, automotive interior trim strips, digital casings, cosmetic mirror bases.
Applications: Vehicle interior parts, high-end small home appliances, plastic panels for smart locks.
Applications: Electronic product housings, plastic decorative buckles for bags, smart home accessories.
Applications: Camera decorative rings, instrument panels, high-end digital accessories.
Applications: Plastic terminals for connectors, high-end gift decorative parts.
Common plastic substrates include ABS, ABS+PC, PC, PP, Nylon, TPU and others. Adhesion solutions vary for different materials. The full coating process consists of four major stages: pre-treatment, spray coating, baking & curing, post-inspection.
Dust Removal & Degreasing: An electrostatic dust gun removes surface dust and lint; solvent wiping eliminates mold release agents, oil stains and fingerprints to avoid craters, pinholes and oil spots after spraying.
Substrate Activation (For Low-Adhesion Plastics Only)
Low-surface-energy plastics such as PP, Nylon and TPU require flame treatment or primer coating to boost bonding force between paint and plastic. Conventional ABS can be sprayed directly without activation.
Masking Protection
Apply high-temperature masking tape and silicone fixtures on non-spray areas including conductive contacts, assembly buckles and screw posts to preserve assembly dimensions and product functionality.
Primer Spraying: Apply primer to light-colored products, parts with poor hiding power or blanks with obvious color difference. It fills minor flow marks and weld lines while enhancing topcoat adhesion and color uniformity.
Topcoat Spraying: The core decorative layer. Mix customer-specified solid colors, metallic tones, pearlescent finishes and matte effects. Spray evenly with atomized spray guns and control film thickness for consistent color.
Functional Clear Coat (Optional)
Rubber Touch Paint (Soft-Feel Coating): Overlaid on topcoat; forms a delicate matte, skin-friendly, anti-slip and fingerprint-resistant finish after drying.
UV Gloss / Matte Varnish: Delivers high gloss, superior abrasion resistance and alcohol resistance with ultra-fast curing under UV light.
Transparent Protective Varnish: Brightens appearance, isolates sweat and corrosive substances to extend service life.
Match baking temperature to paint types: Conventional PU plastic paint requires low-temperature baking (40°C–60°C) to avoid plastic deformation. UV coatings cure instantly under UV lamps. Two-component paints undergo long constant-temperature baking for improved hardness and adhesion.
Temperature and duration are strictly controlled throughout the process to eliminate defects such as whitening, sagging, orange peel and color deviation.
Remove masking fixtures and trim excess paint after cooling. Manual full inspection covers color difference, sagging, particles, missing coating and paint peeling. Sampling tests include cross-hatch adhesion, abrasion resistance, alcohol resistance and salt spray test; qualified products are stored in warehouse.
PU Solid Color Paint
Basic universal coating with abundant customizable shades and adjustable matte/gloss effects, stable adhesion and moderate cost.
Applications: Toys, small home appliance housings, daily plastic accessories.
Soft-Touch Rubber Paint
Matte velvety texture, anti-slip and fingerprint-proof with delicate tactile feel.
Applications: Phone cases, equipment grips, beauty instruments, remote control housings.
UV Gloss / Matte Varnish
High hardness, scratch resistance, sweat and alcohol resistance; available in mirror high-gloss or premium matte finish.
Applications: 3C digital casings, automotive plastic trim strips, high-end smart panels.
Metallic / Pearlescent Paint
Built-in metallic flash and fine pearlescent shimmer; cost-saving alternative to electroplating.
Applications: Automotive interior parts, digital decorative components, gift housings.
Transparent Protective Varnish
Preserves the original plastic base color while adding gloss and surface protection.
Applications: Transparent PC decorative parts, light-transmitting buttons.
Matte Paint
Uniform foggy surface with fingerprint resistance and minimalist premium texture.
Applications: Smart locks, Bluetooth earphone housings, industrial control instrument panels.
Rich Customizable Color & Finish Options
Customize any Pantone solid color, metallic glitter, pearlescent luster, gradient, matte, high-gloss, frosted and soft-touch finishes to create differentiated product appearances.
Conceal Injection Molding Defects
Effectively cover plastic surface flow marks, weld lines, scratches, color deviation and speckles, lowering injection molding standards and raising finished product yield.
Multi-Layer Protection Extending Service Life
The paint film isolates air, sweat, grease and mild acids/alkalis to resist oxidation and yellowing. UV and two-component coatings withstand repeated alcohol wiping without abrasion or color fading.
Improved Tactile Experience
Rubber coating eliminates the cheap hard plastic feel, delivers anti-slip grip and prevents fingerprint and oil buildup during long-term use.
Compatible with Most Plastic Materials
Dedicated primer and paint formulas are available for ABS, ABS+PC, PC, PP, TPU, Nylon and more. Uniform coating can be achieved on irregular curved surfaces, deep grooves and thin-walled components.
Cost-Effective & Eco-Friendly Alternative to Electroplating
Compared with plastic electroplating, spray coating requires lower production line investment and simpler processes with no risk of heavy metal pollution. It supports both small-batch and mass rapid production.
3C digital casings, Bluetooth earphone accessories, phone protective cases, automotive interior plastic parts, large & small home appliance housings, remote controllers, beauty instruments, smart lock panels, toys & gifts, plastic bag fasteners, industrial control equipment housings, daily home plastic accessories, wearable device casings.
What is the difference between plastic spray coating and plastic electroplating?
Spray coating forms an organic paint film with abundant color options and low cost, mainly for decoration and protection. Electroplating creates a metallic layer with stronger metallic texture and superior wear & corrosion resistance, yet it only delivers metallic tones and cannot produce multi-color or soft-touch effects.
Why does paint peel off easily on sprayed products?
Main causes: Incomplete removal of workpiece oil contamination, missing primer for low-adhesion plastics such as PP and Nylon, insufficient baking temperature/duration, or mismatched paint and substrate. Formal spray coating manufacturers implement complete pre-treatment and primer processes to solve peeling issues.
What is the difference between UV coating and ordinary PU coating?
UV coating features higher hardness, better scratch & alcohol resistance and ultra-fast curing efficiency. PU coating offers softer tactile feel and supports soft rubber finishes, with low-temperature baking that rarely deforms plastics.
Translation Notes
Uniform industry terminology compliant with international surface treatment standards: cross-hatch test，flow marks，weld lines，soft-touch paint，two-component paint
Sentence structure optimized for corporate official website use; technical logic fully retained without information loss
Plastic material names, coating effects and testing standards adopt universal English expressions for manufacturing industry
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