NEW ELECTRO-PLATING PROCESS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 96, 17 January 1921, Page 6

NEW ELECTRO-PLATING PROCESS

SHEFFIELD MAN'S DISCOVERY. The discovery of a new process in electro-plating, which experts in tho industry claim will increase output by 100 per cent, as well as save thousands if pounds on plant and equipment, was am nounced by Mr. Frank Mason at a conjoint meeting of the Faraday Society and the Institute of Metals, held at the Sheffield Universiy. All the experiments have been carried out in tho Electro-metallurgical Labor a. tory at Sheffield University, but, further to establish the commercial value of the process, it has been successfully worked on a limited scale in workshop practice, and has given an increase of 100 per cent, in productivity from the plating baths. There is evidence that further exploration will give much more startling results.

The -discovery has relation to the fact that the rapidity at which the deposition of the silver on any article that is. being electro-plated • depends on the strength and quantity of the electricity put into the chemical plating bath io secure that result, says the "Manchester Guardian.” In present practice, if the electric current is increased beyond a given standard the “plate” is spoilt (“burnt”), although the plating is morerapid. But Mr. Mason has discovered that by varying the chemical composition of the plating bath (the electrolyte, as it is called; it is possible not. only to more than double the current of electricity put into the bath, and thereby make it do tho work twice as quickly than in the present practice of the trade, but get a '.‘plate” of tho finest and tho best. In other words, he has discovered how quiet plating can be done without “burning.” Mr. Mason is a native of Sheffield and is "well known as a lecturer in electroplating and electrol-chemistry at the University of Sheffield, as well as a practical works manager. For five years during the war he conducted many researches on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions, and it was while engaged bn these that ho made his discovery.