Platinum Electroplating
Platinum electroplating of superalloy gas turbine parts for a increased service life within harsh operational environments.
The use of modified Aluminized diffusion coatings with Platinum additions are becoming progressively further used in high pressure turbine applications for aerospace and industrial power turbines as a field proven technique to allow increased engine operational time and further increasing reliability of these highly stressed components. The technology required to create a technically compliant Platinum Aluminide diffusion coating can be complex and highly reliant upon multiple processing systems and as a generalization, may be considered as the Electro Plating of a Platinum deposit and, with a follow on Aluminide diffusion coating process.
Features
Practice-proven technology |
Extends turbine life expectancy |
Increases the service life and reliability of gas turbine parts |
Electroplating
For the Electro Plating process, Platinum may be electrically deposited from several different precursor plating salt types and a plating deposit thickness may be considered to be approximately within the region of 3 – 7 µms. Once the plating has been correctly deposited and within defined specifications, the deposited Platinum on a part will typically receive a vacuum furnace heat treatment for diffusion within the superalloy parent material. A follow on Aluminide diffusion coating is then separately applied and with a resultant Platinum Aluminized coating structure being created. (note, this is a very simplified overview of all processes required for the creation of Platinum Aluminized coatings and with many technical details omitted).
Extensive knowledge and experience
Electron possesses substantial processing knowledge and experienced know how within this highly specialized discipline and can supply integrated equipment technology’s and processes specifically focused upon gas turbine new part manufacturing industries and the MRO sectors. Electron can provide conventional Platinum Electro Plating systems & process technologies for a great majority of the current industrially established processing methods and will also include for all of the supplementary processing tasks as required for the successful outcome and achievement of a functional Platinum Aluminized coating
Platomation systems
Op dit moment leggen we de laatste hand aan de ontwikkelingsfase van ons Platomation systeem, dat een nieuw en uitzonderlijk alternatief vormt voor de conventionele platinum electro plating systems zoals die momenteel beschikbaar zijn.
Ter inleiding, één van de belangrijkste uitdagingen van conventionele platinum electro plating systems is het handhaven van de juiste chemie van het platina en het verzekeren dat de juiste platina gewichtstoename en kwaliteit correct is aangebracht binnen de strikt gedefinieerde processpecificaties. Ook moeten voortdurend belangrijke aanvullende parameters in stand worden gehouden, zoals de temperatuur, concentratie en voortdurende toevoeging van diverse chemicaliën om de vereiste concentratieniveaus te handhaven en een optimale efficiëntie te waarborgen.
Geavanceerde procesprestaties
As a further demonstration of Electron’s technical process capabilities and innovative technologies within this sector, Electron is currently finalizing the development phase of its Platomation system and which will offer a new and an exceptionally unique departure from the conventional Platinum plating systems as presently available. As a brief introduction, one of the main challenges of conventional type Platinum plating systems is in maintaining the correct plating bath chemistry and ensuring that the correct Platinum weight gain and quality has been correctly deposited within strictly defined process specifications. Additional and important plating bath parameters must also be constantly maintained such as bath temperature, bath concentration levels and with constant additions of various bath chemicals to maintain required concentration levels and ensuring optimum plating efficiency. Another variable is the constant filtering and agitation of the bath solution and can also be viewed as a key parameter for successful results. Electrons Platomation technique is challenging the present status quo by designing an innovative system which, after initial process & recipe development on a specific part type, promises to achieve the following advanced process deliverables, namely,
Actual plating bath chemistry and the complexity of its maintenance immensely reduced and with no requirement for full time plating chemists/engineers to be present for bath QC procedures. |
Cannot over-plate Platinum in excess of any developed process recipe. |
Precisely predicts the exact amount of Platinum required to be consumed during any specifically developed part type recipe and as a highly valuable aid to forecasting future commercial operations and production planning of expensive materials. |
Accurately predicts the exact Platinum plating cycle time requirement of a process during any specifically developed part type recipe and as a valuable aid to forecasting production planning and operational flexibility. |
Essentially eliminates the amount of Platinum physical reclaim works to be performed and managed and offers greater efficiencies of the overall Platinum plating process to be achieved. |
A very high level of plating bath chemistry automation is ensured (actual electroplating deposition sequence) and significantly reduces the level of skilled operator dependance and in also mitigating against expensive plating bath contamination failures. |
The impressive characteristics of this newly developed processing technology will offer to Electrons customers the opportunity to make genuine productivity gains and within an altogether more cost effective and reliable method for the processing of Platinum electroplating.
Electrons ‘Turbine First Technologies’ attitude.
At Electron we like to think differently and always with the customers viewpoint as a primary directive. As a provider of integrated ‘Turbine First Technologies’ and with a specific focus upon the gas turbine sectors, this permits us to have a unique and highly valuable perspective on the requirements for the design and manufacture of custom built systems and with additional process technologies offered as may be also requested by a customer.
This level of equipment customization and process support is exceptional within this sector and contributes to the overall ‘value add’ proposition as uniquely available from Electron.
More information?
Please contact us if you are interested to learn more about any features of our conventional type Platinum Electro Plating systems or, our new Platomation processing system which is destined to be a far more user friendly and cost effective technology for the deposition of Platinum and we would be pleased to discuss and explain our many value adding technologies within this specialist area. Please also consider that Electron is a provider of ‘Turbine First Technologies’ and which assures that all of our systems are custom built for this unique industry sector and are not multi purposed systems as may be offered by alternative vendors.