This week: Metallic Properties for Plastics, Interview with Marko Lietzke, Application Consultant at AHC Oberflächentechnik GmbH

Windfair: AHC Oberflächentechnik coats plastics at its plant in Berlin. What process is offered for this?

Marko Lietzke: The META-COAT® process: This process allows us to metal-plate plastics using a special pre-treatment. When plastics are metal-plated, they behave like metallic parts with respect to how they can be coated and they can be treated with any of the current coats from the area of electroplating.


Windfair: Which plastics can be coated?

Marko Lietzke: With META-COAT®, many of the current high-performance plastics can be metal-plated. Until now we could metal-plate CFK, GFK, fibre-reinforced and laser-sintered PA, PBT, PE, PEEK, PEI, PET, POM, PPS, PUR and various ceramics.


Windfair: Which coating results and thicknesses are achieved?

Marko Lietzke: Depending on the component requirement various methods are possible such as copper-nickel-gold systems, DURNI-COAT® variants (electroless nickel) or ordinary chrome electroplating. The produced coating strengths are variable and can be tailored to individual requirements.


Windfair: What are the applied layers for? Which are the most important property improvements?

Marko Lietzke: The applied metal layers can have a variety of purposes. These include electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), wear prevention, impermeability to gas or other media and thermal conductivity.


Windfair: How large and heavy can the plastic components be to be coated at the Berlin plant?

Marko Lietzke: As plastics are relatively lightweight due to their low density components to be metal-plated are restricted only by the dimensions of our electrolyte containers. Theses dimensions are 400 x 300 x 300 mm.


Windfair: Which plastic components have been coated at the Berlin plant? Can you give a few examples?

Marko Lietzke: The scope of application for metal-plated plastics is very broad, so these are just a few examples. We coat various kinds of covers and casings to guarantee shielding from electromagnetic radiation. All types of rollers, shafts and bearings have also been metal-plated to protect from wear. One particularly interesting example is the metalization of an HDPE liner for oxygen cylinders for which the loss of compression had to be prevented by diffusion. Finally plastic parts for rapid prototyping are coated for a metallic look and feel.


Windfair: What do customers have to consider when they want to send plastic components to the Berlin plant for coating?

Marko Lietzke: There are many items to resolve regarding the metalization of plastics, so we recommend that customers first contact us to talk about feasibility and various possibilities.


Windfair: Who can customers contact?

Marko Lietzke: For any questions about META-COAT® metalization of high-performance plastics, contact the following representatives:

Marko Lietzke, Tel.: +49 30 549904-58
E-Mail: marko.lietzke@ahc-surface.com

Paul Liepe, Tel.: +49 30 549904-32
E-Mail: paul.liepe@ahc-surface.com

Ulrich Schröder, Tel.: +49 30 549904-12
E-Mail: ulrich.schroeder@ahc-surface.com