Metalization in Manufacturing: What It Does and How It Helps
Even if you don’t know what metalization is, it’s more than likely you’ve used, handled, or seen something that incorporates it. From electronic devices to knickknacks, metalization is the process through which a surface is coated in metal of most any type. The reasons for doing so can be beautifying, preventative, or functional, and the technique is widespread and essential. Here are the basics of metalization in manufacturing, what it does, and how it helps.
Does Metalizing Mean Things Are Turned Into Metal?
Not at all. Through various processes, metalizing means coating a surface or other object with a strong and lovely sheath of metal. The metals most often used with metalizing are aluminum, nickel, bronze, zinc, tungsten, gold, silver, stainless steel, and others. Many different surfaces can be metalized, from glass to plastic to other metals, usually for decoration, protection, or some mechanical function. For a very long time, plastic was a poor subject for metalizing, but with the development of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic, the process became much easier and has expanded its uses and possibilities.
How To Do It?
As for the process, there isn’t just one kind of metalizing. There are two major methods: chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD). Specific metalizing processes by name include high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) coating, twin-wire arc spraying, zinc spraying, plasma spraying, and cold spraying. These have any number of industrial and manufacturing purposes, but at base metalizing ensures parts, materials, and surfaces are stronger and more durable, with better protection from weather, rust, physical damage, and other outside forces. It also improves conductivity, making materials that wouldn’t usually conduct a charge useful to the electronics manufacturers, or providing protection against electromagnetic interference. Metalizing is also used for cosmetic purposes, giving objects a cool, shiny, and metallic sheen, or ensuring lower maintenance, vis a vis cleaning, and repainting.
What Is Metalizing Used For?
The question is, what isn’t metalizing used for? When considering metalization in manufacturing, what it does, and how it helps, you need to account for the thousands of companies that depend on the process to protect their products, enhance performance, and provide a more aesthetically pleasing exterior. From retail store display fixtures to automotive parts, metalization plays a crucial role in the manufacturing of many everyday items. Even medical devices and aerospace components rely on metalizing for its protective and conductive properties.
A comprehensive list would be impossible, but several large-scale industries include an automobile manufacturer, a steel tank manufacturer, the military, a defense contractor, a utility provider, an airplane manufacturer, the computer industry, a smartphone manufacturer, the space program, an oil and gas company, jeweler, toy maker, telescope manufacturer, and so many more all employ these processes to one degree or another.
