BALFORD.Metalworking engineering answers

Heat treatment and surface finishing

Passivation, electropolishing or plating: which surface treatment should I specify?

Reviewed by: pending engineering reviewStatus: draft6 cited sources

Answer

Passivation vs Electropolishing vs Plating: Choosing Surface Treatment How to choose between passivation, electropolishing, zinc or nickel plating, phosphating and powder coating for stamped and deep drawn parts — corrosion, finish, tolerance and cost. Surface treatment is where a good stamped part is most often turned into a rejected one. It is also the step most frequently outsourced without the buyer knowing — which is exactly why it should be specified, controlled and declared. Passivation, electropolishing or plating — which should you specify?

Sources

  1. Passivation vs Electropolishing vs Plating: Which Treatment To Specify
    Passivation vs Electropolishing vs Plating: Choosing Surface Treatment How to choose between passivation, electropolishing, zinc or nickel plating, phosphating and powder coating for stamped and deep drawn parts — corrosion, finish, tolerance and cost. Surface treatment is where a good stamped part ...
  2. Passivation vs Electropolishing vs Plating: Which Treatment
    Control masking: threads, press fits and electrical contact areas often need to be masked Define the corrosion test — a salt spray requirement turns an aesthetic choice into a measurable one Key point Specify three things with any surface treatment: the standard, the corrosion test and the declarati...
  3. Zhuji Huaxin Electroplating | Zinc Plating Partner | Balford
    Is zinc plating outsourced? + Yes, and it is declared as such — together with heat treatment, passivation, electropolishing, phosphating, electrophoretic coating, liquid painting and slow-wire EDM. RELATED SUPPLIERS Related Suppliers Other partners in the same category. ZINC NICKEL PLATING Sha...
  4. Deep Drawn Metal Stamping Manufacturer | Balford
    Which secondary operations can follow deep drawing? + Drawn parts are commonly finished with CNC turning or milling, wire EDM, deburring and controlled cleaning. Heat treatment such as quenching, tempering, annealing and demagnetising, and surface finishing such as electropolishing, passivation and ...
  5. ABS Wheel Speed Sensor Housing Data | Balford
    Concentricity between the bore and the mounting diameter, the flange thickness and flatness, and the position of any locating feature. Those are the dimensions that decide whether the sensor reads correctly, so they are the ones specified tightly and gauged. Grade choice Stainless steel dominates be...
  6. Sensor Hex Nuts & Threaded Fittings | Balford
    Bought out, not made here: the PTFE insulators and bushes on this page, together with bulk heat treatment, slow-wire EDM, passivation, electropolishing, plating, phosphating and liquid painting. Powder coating is split: large sheet-metal parts run in our own manual booth, small parts are coated by a...

What an engineer still needs from you

  • material and material condition (grade, temper)
  • material thickness, plus the key diameter, height and wall thickness
  • tolerances, burr direction and the visual acceptance standard
  • annual volume - it decides whether tooling is single-hit, progressive or transfer
  • surface finish, and any secondary machining, annealing or plating
Next step. Send the drawing for a manufacturability review, or send the part data for a process and cost route.
Submit a drawing / RFQDFM review

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This page is an engineering answer, not a quotation and not a dimensional acceptance. It is generated from Balford's published material and held to the verified company fact sheet.