Sandblasting

At New Method Plating Company, we provide a variety of additional services for our metal plating customers, including sandblasting for surface preparation. Hiring sandblasting professionals to treat your metal is an important part of the metal plating process. This preparation is vital to ensure effective, durable metal plating results.

What Is Sandblasting in Metal Plating?

Before coating or plating, a metal substrate must be properly treated to allow bonding. The sandblasting process uses compressed air to force an abrasive media—sand—against metal parts to remove rust, old paint, dirt, grease, scale, and other imperfections from the surface. Other abrasive materials include walnut shells and metal grit. In addition to cleaning, sandblasting leaves behind small scratches where the coatings can sink into the substrate and adhere more easily. Without this process, any type of plating or coating will not bond properly to the surface.

Benefits of Sandblasting

Sandblasting is a time-tested method for ensuring parts are clean and ready for coating. It’s a simple but highly effective process that offers these benefits:

• Excellent surface preparation — Sandblasting removes dirt and surface flaws while leaving a smooth surface with just enough roughness to improve the bond between the substrate and metal plating, even for parts with complex geometries or those requiring high precision.
• Rapid results — Sandblasting is far faster and easier than manual surface cleaning and preparation, especially for parts with challenging angles, tight spots, or other shapes that make manual cleaning difficult.
• Environmentally friendly — Sandblasting uses natural, non-toxic, reusable abrasives and requires no solvents or other harmful chemicals.
• Removal of rust and other contaminants — Sandblasting is ideal for cleaning metal parts, removing contaminants like oil, grease, old paint, dirt, mill scale, and rust—issues that can cause the plating to adhere unevenly or perform poorly.
• Cost-effective — Sandblasting uses inexpensive, reusable abrasives and requires minimal time and labor to achieve high-quality plating and other finishes.

Why Hire a Sandblasting Professional?

While the sandblasting process may seem straightforward, doing the job effectively can be complicated. Inexperienced workers, inadequate equipment, or errors in the sandblasting process can all result in wasted time, money, and poor quality parts that must be discarded or refinished. Hiring professional sandblasting services saves you time and money in the long run. As professionals, they have the experience, training, facilities, and equipment to get the job done right the first time.

• Experience — Work with a team that has the expertise and capabilities necessary to properly sandblast without wasting time or damaging parts. They can ensure the sandblasting media and methods are appropriate for both the parts being treated and the intended plating technique.
• Industrial Equipment — Sandblasting professionals already have industrial sandblasting equipment in-house, so you don’t have to invest in this machinery yourself. Powerful industrial equipment offers the durability, performance, and quality needed for consistent, cost-effective preparation.
• Worker Safety — This process can be dangerous without proper training and protective gear, but professional sandblasting services are performed by workers who have the training, gear, materials, and equipment to do so safely.

Sandblasting Services With New Method Plating Company

Electroplating results are only as good as their preparation allows. At New Method Plating Company, we offer effective sandblasting preparation and other cleaning techniques to complement our metal plating services. With decades of experience providing electroplating solutions with cadmium, chrome, copper, nickel, and zinc, we have served markets as varied as defense, industrial, commercial hose, and aerospace. Request a quote to start your next project.