TCT spoke to John Wallace, President of U.S. plating company, SAT Plating at RAPID + TCT in Pittsburgh about the demand for low volume, rapid plating services in the additive manufacturing industry and how the 10-year old company is capable of plating just about any material with its Adaptive Plating Technologies.
The Troy, Michigan-based firm’s range of plateable polymers includes typically difficult to plate plastics such as ABS, Nylon, ULTEM, Mylar, PEEK, Kapton and Ryton which leverage SAT’s proprietary Surface Activation Process.
Additive manufacturing, whether for prototyping or a finished product, rarely ends when the part is removed from the build platform. Finishing techniques such as plating can turn a part into a durable or functional product.
“We’re not just talking about prototyping, we’re talking rapid manufacturing …” John commented. “That’s the goal, to have it be rapid but have it be conformal to a full production part”.
