US20040007471A1 - Method of locally plating a part - Google Patents

Method of locally plating a part Download PDF

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Publication number
US20040007471A1
US20040007471A1 US10/334,788 US33478803A US2004007471A1 US 20040007471 A1 US20040007471 A1 US 20040007471A1 US 33478803 A US33478803 A US 33478803A US 2004007471 A1 US2004007471 A1 US 2004007471A1
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
plated
portions
plating
delimitation
locally
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
US10/334,788
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English (en)
Inventor
Marc Phu
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Alcatel Lucent SAS
IPG Electronics 504 Ltd
Original Assignee
Alcatel SA
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Alcatel SA filed Critical Alcatel SA
Publication of US20040007471A1 publication Critical patent/US20040007471A1/en
Assigned to IPG ELECTRONICS 504 LIMITED reassignment IPG ELECTRONICS 504 LIMITED ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: TCL COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LIMITED, TCT MOBILE LIMITED (F/K/A T&A MOBILE PHONES LIMITED)
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

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    • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
    • C25—ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PROCESSES; APPARATUS THEREFOR
    • C25D—PROCESSES FOR THE ELECTROLYTIC OR ELECTROPHORETIC PRODUCTION OF COATINGS; ELECTROFORMING; APPARATUS THEREFOR
    • C25D5/00—Electroplating characterised by the process; Pretreatment or after-treatment of workpieces
    • C25D5/54—Electroplating of non-metallic surfaces
    • C25D5/56—Electroplating of non-metallic surfaces of plastics

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method of plating a part of any shape and size and in particular to partial plating of different portions of a part.
  • Plating is a technique routinely employed in many industries and produces parts with a chromium, titanium or gold appearance, for example.
  • Plating is essentially a reaction of electrolytic deposition of a metallic salt on a metal, generally to preserve it from oxidation. Thus plating a part produces a metallized and non-oxidizable appearance.
  • Plated parts are not necessarily made of metal and for reasons of cost and ease of creating complex shapes can be made of other materials, for example plastics materials.
  • Plastics materials are low-cost materials that are easy to work and all kinds of shapes of parts can be obtained, especially with prior art techniques of injecting plastics materials into a mold.
  • Various families of plastics materials can be used for injection molding, such as polycarbonate (PC) and acrylate butadiene styrene (ABS), for example.
  • PC polycarbonate
  • ABS acrylate butadiene styrene
  • some families of plastics materials can be plated, such as ABS, for example, but not others, for example polycarbonate.
  • plating of plastic material parts has many applications in diverse industries, such as the automobile industry, the mobile telephone and personal digital assistant industry, and any other industry necessitating imparting a metallized and non-oxidizable appearance to a plastics material part.
  • Plating a plastics material part essentially requires the following steps: the part is dipped into a chemical acid bath that attacks the plastics material surface and creates cavities on the surface of the part. The part is then dipped into a plurality of metallic baths in succession to deposit metal (for example copper and/or nickel) in the surface cavities of the plastics material and to carry out the plating as such by depositing metal salts that react electrolytically with the metal previously deposited.
  • the metal salt baths can be based on chromium, titanium or gold, for example, depending on the required final appearance of the plated part. For the electrolysis reaction to take place, it is essential to place at least one electrode on the part to be plated when it is dipped into the plating baths.
  • the plating of plastics material parts is tending to expand mostly in industries that are design led.
  • it enables parts to be made from low-cost materials having different continuous surface portions with different metallic appearances (for example chromium and gold).
  • a first technique consists of producing a plurality of different plastic material parts, plating them separately and completely using appropriate metal salts, and then assembling them to form the finished part having different finish areas corresponding to the various original parts.
  • the assembly step is difficult, costly in terms of time and mediocre in terms of quality, since a transitional groove between the areas (the original parts) remains after assembly.
  • Another technique described in the patent application JP 59-126790, consists of producing a single plastics material part and delimiting portions of the part by printing a boundary by means of an insulative ink. The entire part is then successively dipped into different metal baths, and in the last plating bath the electrodes are disposed inside an insulated portion of the part.
  • This technique produces different plating finishes on different portions of the part by moving the electrodes from one portion to another before dipping it in each of the corresponding plating baths.
  • this technique is limited to parts of simple shape because printing the insulation between the different portions of the part is limited to a plane surface. It is therefore impossible to delimit portions of parts of complex shape using the above technique.
  • the invention proposes to delimit the boundary between portions of a part to be plated that are integrated into the volume of the part to provide better accuracy and better flexibility of shape, in particular with the possibility of delimitation in three dimensions.
  • the invention provides a method of locally plating an injection molded part, the method including delimiting two or more portions of the part by electrical insulation between the portions, and successively plating each portion of the part by successively placing one or more electrodes on the surface of each portion, in which method the insulation between the portions is obtained by dual injection molding of the part whereby a material that can be plated is injected to constitute the portions and a material that cannot be plated is injected to constitute a delimitation.
  • each portion is successively plated by moving the electrode(s) from one portion to another and dipping the part into successive different metal baths.
  • the invention also provides a part having a surface comprising two or more separate portions that are locally plated with different finishes and are separated by a delimitation incorporated into the volume of the part.
  • the delimitation consists of a material that cannot be plated, such as polycarbonate.
  • the plated portions of the part are made of acrylate butadiene styrene or acrylate butadiene styrene/polycarbonate.
  • the invention applies in particular to a mobile radio terminal comprising a shell having an exterior surface comprising two or more separate portions locally plated with different finishes and separated by a delimitation consisting of a material that cannot be plated.
  • two portions 30 , 31 of a part 10 are plated with different finishes.
  • the part 10 is advantageously obtained by a conventional injection molding process which enables virtually any shape to be obtained and more specifically by dual injection of a material that can be plated and a material that cannot be plated.
  • the material that can be plated can be a plastics material, for example, such as acrylate butadiene styrene (ABS) or acrylate butadiene styrene/polycarbonate (ABS/PC), which can be etched by acid baths to deposit particles of metal and to perform a plating reaction by depositing metal salts, as already described.
  • the material that cannot be plated can be polycarbonate (PC), for example, which resists acid bath etching and therefore does not allow the deposition of metallic particles or the plating reaction.
  • the injection mold for producing the part 10 is adapted to allow dual injection in accordance with a particular shape (step a).
  • the shape is chosen to enable the inclusion of a boundary forming a delimitation 15 between the different portions 30 , 31 to be plated differently in accordance with the intended design.
  • the delimitation 15 is incorporated into the volume of the part 10 and can be defined in three dimensions.
  • the number of distinct portions to be plated is not limited to two.
  • the part 10 is plated.
  • the entire part 10 is preferably dipped into acid baths that attack the material that can be plated constituting the portions 30 and 31 of the part 10 but not the material that cannot be plated constituting the delimitation 15 . Cavities for metal deposits are therefore formed only on the surfaces of the various areas of the part 10 to be plated.
  • electrodes 40 are placed inside a first portion 30 which is insulated from the other portion 31 by the delimitation 15 (step b).
  • the entire part 10 is then dipped into the metal baths, but the electrolytic plating reaction can take place only on the surface portion 30 of the part in contact with the electrodes 40 .
  • This operation produces a partially plated part 10 with a given finish, and can be repeated on each delimited portion of the part 10 (step c).
  • the various plated portions 30 , 31 are continuous and the shape of the delimitation 15 between them can be complex.
  • the invention can be applied to a part for automotive vehicles made of plated plastics material with different finish areas or to a mobile radio terminal such as a mobile telephone or a personal digital assistant, consisting of a shell with different distinct portions of its exterior surface locally plated with different finishes separated by a delimitation incorporated into the volume of the part.
  • a mobile radio terminal such as a mobile telephone or a personal digital assistant

Landscapes

  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Chemical Kinetics & Catalysis (AREA)
  • Electrochemistry (AREA)
  • Materials Engineering (AREA)
  • Metallurgy (AREA)
  • Organic Chemistry (AREA)
  • Electroplating Methods And Accessories (AREA)
  • Injection Moulding Of Plastics Or The Like (AREA)
US10/334,788 2002-01-03 2003-01-02 Method of locally plating a part Abandoned US20040007471A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
FR0200036A FR2834300B1 (fr) 2002-01-03 2002-01-03 Procede de galvanisation locale d'une piece
FR0200036 2002-01-03

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20040007471A1 true US20040007471A1 (en) 2004-01-15

Family

ID=8871150

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US10/334,788 Abandoned US20040007471A1 (en) 2002-01-03 2003-01-02 Method of locally plating a part

Country Status (5)

Country Link
US (1) US20040007471A1 (zh)
EP (1) EP1325970A1 (zh)
JP (1) JP2003201594A (zh)
CN (1) CN1323193C (zh)
FR (1) FR2834300B1 (zh)

Cited By (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20080124626A1 (en) * 2006-11-24 2008-05-29 Fujitsu Limited Terminal and mobile terminal apparatus
US20100028597A1 (en) * 2008-07-30 2010-02-04 Toshimitsu Ukai Switch unit
US20110024300A1 (en) * 2009-07-30 2011-02-03 Ezekiel Kruglick Electro-deposition of nano-patterns
JP2014508670A (ja) * 2011-03-10 2014-04-10 バイエル・インテレクチュアル・プロパティ・ゲゼルシャフト・ミット・ベシュレンクテル・ハフツング 部分的電気めっき用の透明な、電気めっき可能なプラスチックフィルム
US20160237737A1 (en) * 2015-02-13 2016-08-18 Amesbury Group, Inc. Weatherstrip having undulating base
US20160333491A1 (en) * 2015-05-14 2016-11-17 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Method for creating multiple electrical current pathways on a work piece
US20180195194A1 (en) * 2015-05-14 2018-07-12 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Floating metallized element assembly and method of manufacturing thereof
US20180243958A1 (en) * 2015-05-14 2018-08-30 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Two-shot molding for selectively metalizing parts
US20200109482A1 (en) * 2018-10-09 2020-04-09 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. 2-shot molded article with multiple electrical current pathways
US11639552B2 (en) * 2015-05-14 2023-05-02 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Method for creating multiple electrical current pathways on a work piece

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
KR100959878B1 (ko) 2008-05-16 2010-05-27 (주)옵티스 베이스의 부분 도금방법
CN108890940A (zh) * 2012-05-14 2018-11-27 汽车专利管理和利用有限公司 塑料制复合材料组件
CN104404585A (zh) * 2014-11-18 2015-03-11 苏州铜盟电气有限公司 一种高性能多方位脉冲挂镀银生产工艺
JP2019026889A (ja) * 2017-07-28 2019-02-21 豊田合成株式会社 めっき部品の製造方法

Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4170524A (en) * 1976-06-25 1979-10-09 Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. Method of partially plating article or synthetic resin
US20020197492A1 (en) * 2001-06-25 2002-12-26 Ling Hao Selective plating on plastic components

Family Cites Families (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS61118219A (ja) * 1984-11-15 1986-06-05 Sanko Raito Kogyo Kk 円柱状をした非導電性物品の表面を局部的に電着するための狭巾溝の成形方法
IN167760B (zh) * 1986-08-15 1990-12-15 Kollmorgen Tech Corp
US5484516A (en) * 1993-04-09 1996-01-16 Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. Resin products and process for producing the same
KR0147976B1 (ko) * 1995-06-30 1998-10-15 배순훈 박막 헤드의 패턴 평탄화 방법
US6036832A (en) * 1996-04-19 2000-03-14 Stork Veco B.V. Electroforming method, electroforming mandrel and electroformed product
DE19919709A1 (de) * 1999-04-30 2001-03-01 Lydall Gerhardi Gmbh & Co Kg Partiell galvanisierbares Polymerenformteil
US6673227B2 (en) * 2000-05-29 2004-01-06 Siemens Production & Logistics Systems Ag Process for producing three-dimensional, selectively metallized parts

Patent Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4170524A (en) * 1976-06-25 1979-10-09 Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. Method of partially plating article or synthetic resin
US20020197492A1 (en) * 2001-06-25 2002-12-26 Ling Hao Selective plating on plastic components

Cited By (18)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20080124626A1 (en) * 2006-11-24 2008-05-29 Fujitsu Limited Terminal and mobile terminal apparatus
US8045341B2 (en) * 2006-11-24 2011-10-25 Fujitsu Limited Terminal and mobile terminal apparatus
US20100028597A1 (en) * 2008-07-30 2010-02-04 Toshimitsu Ukai Switch unit
US8440924B2 (en) * 2008-07-30 2013-05-14 Kabushiki Kaisha Tokia Rika Denki Seisakusho Switch unit with multi-layer resin switch cover
US20110024300A1 (en) * 2009-07-30 2011-02-03 Ezekiel Kruglick Electro-deposition of nano-patterns
US8911607B2 (en) * 2009-07-30 2014-12-16 Empire Technology Development Llc Electro-deposition of nano-patterns
JP2014508670A (ja) * 2011-03-10 2014-04-10 バイエル・インテレクチュアル・プロパティ・ゲゼルシャフト・ミット・ベシュレンクテル・ハフツング 部分的電気めっき用の透明な、電気めっき可能なプラスチックフィルム
US20160237737A1 (en) * 2015-02-13 2016-08-18 Amesbury Group, Inc. Weatherstrip having undulating base
US20160333491A1 (en) * 2015-05-14 2016-11-17 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Method for creating multiple electrical current pathways on a work piece
US20180195194A1 (en) * 2015-05-14 2018-07-12 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Floating metallized element assembly and method of manufacturing thereof
US20180243958A1 (en) * 2015-05-14 2018-08-30 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Two-shot molding for selectively metalizing parts
US10737530B2 (en) * 2015-05-14 2020-08-11 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Two-shot molding for selectively metalizing parts
US11326268B2 (en) * 2015-05-14 2022-05-10 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Floating metallized element assembly and method of manufacturing thereof
US11408086B2 (en) * 2015-05-14 2022-08-09 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Method for creating multiple electrical current pathways on a work piece
DE102016208184B4 (de) 2015-05-14 2023-04-27 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Verfahren zum Erzeugen eines Teils mit mehreren dekorativen Oberflächen
US11639552B2 (en) * 2015-05-14 2023-05-02 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. Method for creating multiple electrical current pathways on a work piece
US20200109482A1 (en) * 2018-10-09 2020-04-09 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. 2-shot molded article with multiple electrical current pathways
US11802347B2 (en) * 2018-10-09 2023-10-31 Lacks Enterprises, Inc. 2-shot molded article with multiple electrical current pathways

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CN1429933A (zh) 2003-07-16
FR2834300A1 (fr) 2003-07-04
JP2003201594A (ja) 2003-07-18
FR2834300B1 (fr) 2004-02-27
EP1325970A1 (fr) 2003-07-09
CN1323193C (zh) 2007-06-27

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Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
STCB Information on status: application discontinuation

Free format text: ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION

AS Assignment

Owner name: IPG ELECTRONICS 504 LIMITED

Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:TCL COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LIMITED;TCT MOBILE LIMITED (F/K/A T&A MOBILE PHONES LIMITED);REEL/FRAME:022680/0001

Effective date: 20081230

Owner name: IPG ELECTRONICS 504 LIMITED, GUERNSEY

Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:TCL COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS LIMITED;TCT MOBILE LIMITED (F/K/A T&A MOBILE PHONES LIMITED);REEL/FRAME:022680/0001

Effective date: 20081230