Article From: Products Finishing, Tim Pennington , Editor from Products Finishing magazine

Posted on: 6/2/2011

22

GM-driven process increases materials that can be chrome plated.

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Plating on plastic isnt new in the finishing world, but a

Fridley, Minn., company says it is about to improve on the
process by using reactive gases to activate the surface and
get adhesion strength four times better than conventional
methods.
Incertecwhich until recently was known as Spec Plating
says it will be the first to use a proprietary process
developed by a Michigan firm and MacDermid Inc. that was
initiated by General Motors to improve the chrome on trim
parts.
Surface Activation was developed by Surface Activation
Technologies (SAT; Troy, Mich.), which worked with
MacDermid, GM and several other vendors perfecting the
technology. MacDermid markets the process chemistries
under the name of Macuplex.

Robert Bess, director of sales and marketing for Incertec, says his company has been testing the Surface
Activation process with several of its customers and is pleased with the results. Some of its clients include
Honeywell, Goodrich, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin.
The gases cause the atomic structure of the polymer to change to a depth of 25 microns, creating a polar
and hydrophilic surface, Bess says. The plastic then becomes plateable without chromic or sulfuric
etching, allowing for a permanent and stable treatment to a wider variety of polymers than ever before.
Robert Hamilton, MacDermids technology manager for molded interconnect devices, was the lead
researcher on the project and presented his first report on the process at the 2009 NASF Sur/Fin
conference, along with GMs Charles Buehler and Stuart Brown. John Wallace, Tom Schmoyer and Don
Corning joined from SAT.
Hamilton says that normal plating on plastic surfaces for automotive parts is almost always done on
acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) or polycarbonate- acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (PC/ABS)
substrates. The mixtures of chromic acid and sulfuric acid are used to selectively attack the butadiene and
etch the plastic blend.
But the new process increases the types of materials that can be chrome plated, and eliminates the need
for chromic acid and the environmental and safety problems that come with it.
Up to now, theres been an insurmountable technological barrier related to the etching of the plastic
because, despite considerable research, no viable alternative to chromic acid etching of ABS and PC/ABS
has been found, Hamilton says. Chromic acid etching isnt much good for most other plastics. It will
attack many of them, but produces adhesion-promoting topography only on a few.
Working with the researchers at SAT, Hamilton and others knew going in that polyolefins such as
polyethylene can sulfonate using oleumfuming sulfuric acid with one result being that the polymer
becomes hydrophilic and wettable.

What they didnt know was whether the plastic could then effectively be plated without using a chromic acid
etch. They also worried about the oleum, which is very hazardous to handle and extremely difficult to
maintain in a chemical-steady state.
But SAT researchers had already developed a vapor-phase sulfonation processwhich Incertec is using as
Surface Activationthat was reacting with polymers in a controlled, consistent and repeatable manner.
With the improved consistency, it was then possible to screen electroless plating processes against varied
reaction conditions of the activation process, and develop a plating process which is broadly applicable to
sulfonated polymers, Hamilton says.
GM joined the research group in 2007 with MacDermid, SAT and Lyondell Basell to work on the surface
activation process, and later they started to look at acryolonitrile-styrene-acetate (ASA) as well.
Hamilton says the conditioner is a mild alkaline cleaner, run at 140F with a typical immersion times of 1-5
minutes. In addition to cleaning, he says the alkaline ensures that the parts are uniformly wetted and are
receptive to the catalyst.
The activator is an alkaline, ionic palladium, rather than an acidic, colloidal tin-palladium. Typical conditions
are 110F for four minutes of immersion time. The accelerator is acidic and strongly reducing in nature. The
usual conditions are 120F for three minutes.
Hamilton says the metallization process can be either electroless copper or electroless nickel. The chromic
acid etched ABS is much rougher than the PC/ABS because the PC does not etch much at all. Adhesions
are much better on ABS as a result, typically 6-8 lb/inch vs. 2-3 lb/inch on PC/ABS.
There is some roughening on the activated ABS because the treatment will attack butadiene, but it is much
smoother than the chromic etch, he says. There is almost no roughening on PC/ABS and none at all on
TPO, which has some existing surface roughness due to the presence of fillers.
The researchers plate tested pieces with full decorative chrome plating per the GM 14668 spec. (See chart.)
The relevant test results are shown in the table above, along with some results for PC/ABS for comparison
purposes and some engineering resins they also tested.
The results show that both TPO and ASA can be plated successfully to GM exterior specifications, using
the new process, Hamilton says. In particular, both resins show much higher adhesion values than what
can be achieved with the conventional process on ABS-based resins, which offers a reliability
improvement.
To contact Incertec, please call 763-717-2810 or visit incertec.com; to contact MacDermid, please call 720479-3060 or visit macdermid.com. To contact Surface Activation Technologies, please call 248-273-0037,
or visit surfaceactivation.net.