Stainless Steel Faucets Manufacturers Introduces The Electroplating Quality Requirements Of Faucets

Faucet is a common single product widely used in toilet and washing water appliances. With the improvement of people's living standards, the continuous improvement of housing conditions and living facilities, the demand for medium and high-end faucets is increasing, and the requirements for the quality of the surface coating of the faucets are increasing. Next, Stainless Steel Faucets Manufacturers introduces the electroplating quality requirements of faucets:

1. Material selection
   The quality of faucet electroplating not only depends on the electroplating process, but also involves various aspects such as the base material of the faucet, the casting process, and the pretreatment of electroplating. The valve body of the faucet is the main component of the faucet. The material is cast brass. The ZCu40ZnPb2 grade is the most common. The average casting wall thickness is 3mm. The valve body, handle, and valve cover of a good faucet are all made of brass. After casting, processing, surface grinding and polishing, electroplating nickel, decorative chromium or chromium-nickel alloy, if such products are processed before casting, electroplating, electroplating The craftsmanship is well handled, and they are generally more resistant to corrosion. In order to enhance the corrosion resistance of the product and improve the grade of the product, a multilayer nickel plating process is also used. However, in order to save production costs, some companies add a large amount of waste copper to cast brass, which makes the cast brass contain a lot of impurities. Pock and pitting appeared after the acid salt spray test. Some manufacturers even use cast iron and zinc alloys that have been eliminated as raw materials. Because cast iron is prone to rust and zinc alloys are not resistant to corrosion, faucets made from these raw materials are prone to rust spots. After a 2h acid salt spray test, the valve body appears. A lot of defects such as rust spots and pitting. Other manufacturers use brass for the valve body of the faucet, while the handle and valve cover are made of inferior materials such as cast iron and plastic. After the 24h acid salt spray test of this product, the valve body is often not corroded, while the handle and valve cover Serious corrosion has occurred, resulting in unqualified products and lowering the quality of the products.
   　　
   2. Casting process
   The faucet valve body is the main component of the faucet, and its production method generally adopts sand casting and metal casting. Due to the high requirements for the surface quality of the faucet, the outer surface of the casting before electroplating must not have any visible pores, cracks, looseness, and inclusions; the faucet using metal casting has a dense structure, good surface quality, and high yield, and it is also possible To avoid environmental pollution caused by sand casting, most manufacturers currently use metal casting technology. However, the metal casting faucet valve is used, the outer surface is formed by a metal mold, and the inner cavity is formed by a coated sand core. When the copper liquid is poured into the metal cavity, the surface cooling rate is faster, and the casting structure is dense; and the inner cavity Surrounded by sand cores, the cooling rate is slower and shrinkage defects are more likely to occur. Although some manufacturers use cast brass with better material, after 24h acid salt spray test, the valve body still shows loss of gloss and rust spots. The reason is that the casting process of the faucet body was not handled properly. Therefore, only by strengthening the design of casting molds, alloy melting and pouring, casting process control, and cleaning of falling sand, can qualified faucet body castings be cast.
2. Polishing and cleaning qualified faucet castings before plating needs to go through machining, grinding, and polishing procedures before electroplating.
   Machining and polishing are to reshape the product. Grinding and polishing mainly flatten the surface of the product, reduce the roughness of the casting, and can also eliminate the slight blisters, burrs, and other defects caused by the casting. Due to the relatively high-quality requirements of the appearance of the faucet, the coating on the outer surface of the faucet should be well combined, the structure should be fine, smooth, and uniform and the color should be uniform. Polishing quality is a key factor to ensure the quality of electroplating, improve surface brightness and eliminate defects. The faucet is a decorative product. It is very sensitive to inclusions and ballasts. Even very fine impurities may cause defects such as burrs, pitting, or pinholes on the electroplating surface, and even scorch, blistering, and peeling of the coating. For example, after 24h acid salt spray test, loss of gloss and rust spots, even blistering and general corrosion, etc. will appear, so pretreatment is very important. The sand and carbonized resin in the cavity after casting, the grease, copper scraps, and copper powder left after machining, and the polishing paste after polishing must be cleaned to ensure the quality of electroplating. The presence of contaminants is the main cause of burrs and pitting in electroplating.
3. Control of electroplating process
   The surface of the faucet is mainly electroplated with nickel and chromium. The nickel and chromium electroplating process have a history of many years. The electroplating process is very mature, the purity of chemical raw materials and additives is high, and the impurities are low, and the electroplating equipment is advanced. The environment is clean, and there are generally fewer electroplating quality problems. The corrosion intolerance found in the inspection is mainly due to the fact that some manufacturers reduce the plating time and reduce the plating time. The plating layer is thin and cannot completely compensate for the pores of the plating layer. The corrosive liquid corrodes to the substrate through the pores, and a large number of rust spots appear.