First of all, I will give you a multiple-choice question,
Please select which of the following faucets is made of plastic:
Correct Answer: They are all
If the first one is plastic, then I can understand, because it is made of plastic at a glance, but the other few obviously look like metal, isn‘t this what you and I often use as a bathroom faucet in my home? Especially when cleaning, I often polish it polished, and I can‘t tell that they are actually made of plastic.
In fact, in addition to the faucet, many exterior parts will be designed with a bright silver-white effect, which looks very textured, and this process is to electroplate plastic materials.
Which plastics can be electroplated?
Not all plastics can be plated. Plastics that can be electroplated mainly rely on the formation of "pits" on the surface of the plastic, so that the electroplating layer can be "riveted" with the plastic, so that the two have a good bond. Some plastics have poor adhesion to the metal layer and have no practical value; Some physical properties of some plastics and metal coatings, such as the expansion coefficient, are too different, and it is difficult to ensure their performance in high temperature environments.
Schematic diagram of butadiene phase corrosion on ABS surface
At present, the most used for electroplating is ABS material, accounting for about 80%-90% of plastic electroplating, followed by PP, and PSF, PC, PTFE, etc. also have successful electroplating methods, but it is more difficult.
The faucet we mentioned above is processed by electroplated ABS material. The advantages of electroplating ABS are high electroplating adhesion, high product yield, relatively simple electroplating process, and low material and process costs. In addition to faucets, 90% of the showers used in the bathroom are made of the same materials and processes.
Compared with faucets made of copper, iron, stainless steel and other materials, what are the characteristics of this plastic electroplated faucet?
1. Economical, cost-effective, from tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan can be selected;
2. High temperature resistant and strong. Plastic faucet has excellent chemical properties and insulation properties of plastic, ABS plastic has both tough, hard, rigid and other excellent mechanical properties;
3. Environmental protection and health. Plastic faucet is lightweight, scale-free, rust-free, odorless, cheap, easy to construct, and is an environmentally friendly and healthy faucet product.
However, the use of electroplated ABS as a faucet also has some obvious defects, such as low heat resistance, generally only able to withstand 70-80 °C temperature, which is not only prone to defects in electroplating, but also for some faucets through hot water, it is also easy to deform or crack.
Topcentral® IBISS®
rABS material
It is a plastic pellet prepared by recycling post-consumer products (including but not limited to home appliances, communication equipment, pipes, plates, coils, consumer electronics, etc.) through pretreatment and standardized granulation modification. According to different recycling sources and quality levels, design classification screening, technological innovation breakthrough, performance optimization and high-quality automated production and processing to provide customers with extrusion grade and injection grade rABS particles. The company‘s products cover different sources of emulsion method and ontology method, and can provide colors including but not limited to natural color, black, gray, white and other different color systems. It can meet the different application needs of industry customers, and at the same time can provide a full range of customized system solutions and innovative solutions according to customer special requirements.
Product features
♦ Finely designed and optimized control of raw material sources and quality, strict management of production and processing technology and technical quality standards, stable and sustainable product performance, and traceability of the whole industry chain;
♦ The product complies with RoHS/REACH/FDA standards and has passed GRS/UL2809/SCS Global/Oceancycle® Plastic certification;
♦ It can provide customers with carbon consulting and services, including but not limited to carbon footprint, carbon emissions, carbon neutrality, etc. services and certification;
♦ According to customer customization requirements, we can provide a full range of customized system solution innovation solutions;
♦ It can reduce or reduce carbon emissions by more than 83.3%.
Application direction
The products are suitable for downstream deep processing modified granulation, extrusion molding, injection molding, and can be widely used in home appliances, electrical appliances, automobiles, packaging, chemical supplies and other products.
